Think these bags are recyclable? California calls to think again

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

But Attorney General Rob Bonta is now investigating whether the packages can indeed be recycled as required by law.

“We were all in the store and forgot to take our reusable bags with us,” Bonta said recently. “At least the plastic bags we buy at the checkout for 10 cents have ‘chase arrows’ on them that say they’re 100% recyclable, right? Perhaps wrong.”

He asked six bag makers to back up their claims that the bags could be recycled and threatened legal action that could include a temporary ban on the use of the bags or imposition of multi-million dollar fines.

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

Other states, including New York, New Jersey and Oregon, have followed California’s lead in banning single-use plastic bags. Outside of California, only a few states require stores to recycle plastic bags, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Maine first passed such a law in 1991.

Experts and policy advocates estimate that only 6% of plastic is recycled in the United States and the rest is incinerated, discarded or discarded. More plastic bags ended up in California landfills in 2021 than in 2018, according to the state Department of Recycling.

Californians Against Waste Executive Director Mark Murray blames the pandemic policy in part.

Consumers are expected to be able to return their plastic bags to grocery stores and other retail stores. But many cleared out their rubbish bins in the early days of the pandemic for fear of contagion.

For the system to work, retailers must collect bags and sell them back to manufacturers to use in the production of new bags, which must be 40% recycled and recyclable at least 125 times. Murray suspects that most of them are being reused to store other trash.

“It’s not up to standard and maybe it’s time to drop these bags,” he said.

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

For now, bag manufacturers can self-certify that their bags can be recycled. But Bonta said collecting, processing and selling used bags requires a comprehensive system that doesn’t exist. Placing bags in most roadside bins interferes with the processing of other products, clogging equipment and increasing the risk of injury to workers, he said.

Plastic bags and similar products are “a major form of curbside trash can pollution,” the California State Commission on Curbside Recycling Markets and Recycling wrote in a 2021 report.

Bonta asked six manufacturers — Novolex, Revolution, Inteplast, Advance Polybag, Metro Polybag and Papier-Mettler — to prove that their bags are recyclable in California. His office did not say if they all responded, citing an “active and ongoing investigation.”

Revolution CEO Sean Whiteley said the company has been recycling over 300 million pounds of plastic annually for decades and is “confident in our own sustainability and regulatory compliance.”

He noted that lawmakers publicly introduced legislation to ban single-use bags in 2014 at one of the company’s Southern California subsidiaries.

“At our core, we are an environmental recycling company that also offers sustainable plastic solutions,” he said in a statement.

Novolex said it is “committed to complying with all state laws and regulations.” The company responded to Bonta’s request but declined to provide a full response to The Associated Press, a spokesman said.

Novolex bags have been certified recyclable by an independent laboratory and therefore must be labeled accordingly, the company said in a statement.

The other four companies did not respond to multiple email inquiries.

Manufacturers are “actively working to ensure that all plastic packaging produced is converted to new plastic,” said Joshua Baca, vice president of plastics for the American Chemistry Council.

This is not Bonta’s first encounter with the plastics industry. Earlier this year, he sued ExxonMobil in what he called the first of its kind broader probe into the oil industry and the spread of plastic waste.

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Thompson recently left the Associated Press.