A decade ago, California became the first state in the U.S. to ban single-use plastic bags, which resulted in many other states following.
The effort to eliminate bags, which pose several environmental hazards, worked in the first year.
But material-recovery facilities and environmental activists have noticed a reserve trend over the past few years; Plastic bag waste by weight was increasing to unprecedented levels.
The increase has been about 47% from from when the law went into effect to 2022, according to a report by the consumer advocacy group CALPIRG.
The culprit was a section of the law that allowed grocery stores and large retailers to provide thicker, heavier-weight plastic bags to customers for the price of a dime. It was supposed to be recyclable, or reusable, but people were apparently just throwing them away.
