California’s Plastic Bag Ban Backfired and Produced Way More Plastic Bag Waste

California’s 2014 ban on thin plastic grocery bags caused more plastic bag waste, not less.

the first by any state in the nation — in 2014, noting that the ban was a regressive tax on consumers that would benefit large grocery chains, who could charge ten cents per bag for heavier, government-approved plastic bags that were, in theory, more reusable than the thinner ones.