On January 1, 2026, a new California law, SB 1053, hits its big enforcement date. At most stores that sell food or liquor, you will no longer be able to get plastic checkout bags of any kind — including the thicker, so-called “reusable” plastic bags that many Bay Area shoppers have been using for years.
Instead, if you need a bag at checkout, the store can only give you a recycled paper carryout bag, and they must charge you at least 10 cents per bag. That rule applies not just at the main checkout lane, but also at self-checkout, in-store pickup, curbside pickup, and home delivery orders.
Behind the scenes, the law also tightens the definition of a “carryout bag” and makes clear that plastic film bags at the point of sale are out.
So if you are shopping at Safeway, Trader Joe’s, Costco, 99 Ranch, H Mart, or your neighborhood independent market anywhere in the Bay Area, you can expect no plastic bags at checkout at all starting New Year’s Day 2026.
Didn’t California already ban plastic bags?
Yes — but the earlier ban left a big loophole.
Back in 2014, California adopted SB 270 and voters later backed Proposition 67, which banned thin, single-use plastic bags at many stores and required a 10 cent charge on paper or reusable bags.
Many grocery chains responded by switching to thicker plastic film bags that technically met the definition of “reusable.” In practice, most shoppers treated them like disposables and threw them away. CalRecycle data and outside analyses found that, by weight, more plastic bag material was entering the waste stream than before the original ban.
SB 1053 is essentially the “do-over” for that first law. It closes the loophole by:
- Banning plastic film carryout bags outright at regulated stores starting January 1, 2026
- Restricting checkout bags to recycled paper only, with stricter recycled content rules by 2028
What this means at Bay Area grocery stores
For Bay Area shoppers, a lot of this may feel familiar — local bag bans have been in place for years in San Francisco, Alameda County, and many Peninsula communities.
But SB 1053 standardizes the rules statewide and tightens them:
- Grocery stores, convenience stores, food marts, pharmacies, and liquor stores throughout the Bay Area will all be under the same plastic bag rules on January 1, 2026.
- Alameda County’s Waste Management Authority has already updated its county-wide Reusable Bag Ordinance to match the state law, explicitly banning all film plastic checkout bags and confirming the 10 cent minimum charge for compliant paper bags.
- Some local ordinances, like San Francisco’s checkout bag rules, will still sit on top of the state law and can be stricter. For example, San Francisco already requires stores to charge at least 25 cents per checkout bag.
If you shop across multiple counties — say, Safeway in Walnut Creek, Trader Joe’s in Lafayette, and Ranch 99 in Richmond — the basic story is now the same everywhere:
No plastic bags at checkout, and a fee if you need a paper bag.
