If you forget to bring your own bag to the store, you’ll end up paying at least 10 cents for a recycled paper or reusable plastic bag.
Proposition 67 upheld a ban on single-use plastic bags in California grocery stores and, while the law will officially take effect December 9th when the vote is finalized, most stores have begun charging customers for reusable bags.
According to Article 2 of the California Constitution, “An initiative statute or referendum approved by a majority of votes thereon takes effect the day after the election unless the measure provides otherwise. If a referendum petition is filed against a part of a statute the remainder shall not be delayed from going into effect.”
Any ballot measure that gets a majority of votes goes into effect the day after the election, which caught a lot of local shoppers unprepared.
“From my perspective, I understand the desire to eliminate single use plastic bags,” said Susanville Supermarket IGA owner Rick Stewart. “They are intended to be disposable, and as such either end up in the land fill or worse, road side litter often injuring wildlife.”
“What I don’t support is anything that makes my customers shopping experience more difficult. It’s really hard to watch my customers either struggle to get their purchases to the car with no bag or be irritated by the fact that they were charged 10 cents for each bag.”
Stores are required by the new law, which passed with about 52 percent of the vote, to charge 10 cents for reusable plastic or paper bags. Reusable plastic bags will be sold alongside other environmentally friendly bags at many stores.
“If it were up to me, I’d continue to provide bags at no cost as I always have,” said Stewart, “unfortunately that is not an option.”
