THE ROAD TO HELL IS PAVED WITH REUSABLE BAGS: California’s plastic bag ban backfires after customers just start dumping thicker and heavier 10 cent ‘reusable’ carriers instead, triggering more pollution than ever.

California’s plastic bag ban has backfired nearly a decade after the state made history as the first to ban single-use carriers – sparking a nationwide movement.

In the years since the landmark decision, material recovery facilities and environmental activists in the golden state have observed an unexpected surge in plastic bag waste by weight, according to a report by the LA Times.

Customers now dump thicker and heavier ‘reusable’ carriers instead, triggering more pollution than ever – for only an extra ten cents per bag at the check out.

Now, California legislators are working to rectify the growing problem by proposing a new law that plans to ban the thick plastic bags too.
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Senator Ben Allen highlighted that these thick plastic bags were not what consumers had envisioned when supporting the bag ban at the ballot box in 2016.

California discarded a whopping 157,385 tons of plastic bags in the year the ban was implemented, according to a report by the consumer advocacy group CALPIRG.

By 2022, this amount nearly doubled to 231,072, marking a whopping 47 percent increase – accounting for population growth.

I keep expecting some smart legislator to propose outlawing unintended consequences but it’s really only a matter of time.