Solid waste: precheckout and carryout bags.

Existing law enacts provisions regulating the sale and distribution of reusable grocery bags to customers and prohibits a store, as defined, from providing a single-use carryout bag to a customer at the point of sale, except a compostable bag under specified conditions. Existing law defines a "single-use carryout bag" for this purpose to mean a bag made of plastic, paper, or other material that is provided by a store to a customer at the point of sale and that is not a recycled paper bag, as defined, or a reusable grocery bag that meets specified requirements. This bill would additionally prohibit, on and after January 1, 2025, a store, as defined, from providing a precheckout bag to a customer if the bag is not either a compostable bag, as described, or a recycled paper bag. The bill would define a "precheckout bag" for this purpose to mean a bag provided to a customer before the customer reaches the point of sale, that is designed to protect a purchased item from damaging or contaminating other purchased items in a checkout bag, or to contain an unwrapped food item. Existing law prohibits, unless the product meets specified standards, a person from selling or offering for sale a product in this state that is labeled with the term "biodegradable," "degradable," or "decomposable," or any form of those terms, or in any way implies that the product will break down, fragment, biodegrade, or decompose in a landfill or other environment. This bill would define the term "implies" for that purpose to include using green, beige, or brown tinting or color schemes on a plastic precheckout or carryout bag that is not eligible to be labeled with the terms "compostable" or "home compostable."