CALIFORNIA AG INVESTIGATING PLASTIC BAG RECYCLING

Bonta requests six companies prove they’re recyclable

Since California adopted the nation’s first ban on single-use plastic shopping bags in 2014, most grocery stores have turned to thicker, reusable plastic bags that are supposed to be recyclable.

But Attorney General Rob Bonta is now investigating whether the bags are truly recyclable as required by law.

“We’ve all been to the store and forgotten to bring our reusable bags,” Bonta said recently. “At least the plastic bags we buy at the register for 10 cents have those ‘chasing arrows’ that say they are 100 percent recyclable, right? Perhaps wrong.”

He asked six bag manufacturers to back up their claims that the bags can be recycled and threatened legal action that could include banning the bags temporarily or issuing multimillion-dollar fines.

His office declined to say last week how many of the companies responded, citing an ongoing investigation. The American Chemistry Council, a plastics industry group, said that manufacturers disagree with Bonta’s characterization.

Policy experts and advocates estimate that just 6 percent of plastics are recycled in the United States, with the remaining burned, trashed or littered. More plastic bags ended up in California landfills in 2021 compared with 2018, according to data from the state’s recycling department.

For the system to work, retailers must collect the bags and sell them back to manufacturers for use in making new bags that must include 40 percent recycled content and be reusable at least 125 times. Californians Against Waste Executive Director Mark Murray suspects that most are reused once to hold other trash.

“That’s not meeting the standard and it may be time to phase these bags out,” he said.

The California Retailers Association declined comment because it said each retailer has its own policy, and the California Grocers Association did not respond to a request for comment.

As of now, makers of the bags get to self-certify to the state that their bags can be recycled. But Bonta said that requires a comprehensive system to collect, process and sell the used bags, none of which exist. Putting the bags in most curbside recycling bins interferes with recycling other products by clogging equipment and increasing the risk of worker injury, he said.