LOS ANGELES (November 15, 2016)– On November 8, 2016, California voters approved Proposition 67 to implement a statewide ban on single-use plastic carry-out bags. The ban takes effect immediately across the state in all 482 cities and 58 counties. Customers at grocery stores, retails stores with a pharmacy, convenience stores, food marts, and liquor stores will need to remember to bring their own reusable bags or pay a $0.10 fee per recyclable paper bag or reusable alternative. The statewide law allows city and county governments to continue to operate under their own ordinances if the guidelines were adopted before January 1, 2015. If they were not, communities must comply with the new state law.
The City of Los Angeles adopted its own single-use plastic carry-out bag ban with $0.10 fee per recyclable paper bag in June 2013 effective for large supermarkets in January 2014 and expanded to drug stores, convenience stores, and other types of smaller food markets in July 2014. Los Angeles County adopted its ban in November 2010 that prohibited the distribution of single use plastic carryout bags at certain stores in unincorporated County areas and required a $0.10 charge for each paper bag provided to a customer. More than 150 cities and counties across California had already banned the bags prior to the November vote.
For more information about the City of Los Angeles ban on single-use plastic carry-out bags, please visit LA Sanitation's website at www.lacitysan.org.
For questions, please contact LA Sanitation's Solid Resources Citywide Recycling Division by email at SRCRD@lacity.org or call 1-800-773-2489.