Last month, California passed a law banning plastic pre-checkout bags—including plastic produce bags.

The legislation is the first of its kind in the nation and will go into effect on January 1, 2025. Any pre-checkout bag that is not compostable or made from recycled paper is banned under this new law.

In the bill, a pre-checkout bag is defined as a “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, such as (but not limited to) loose produce, meat or fish, nuts, grains, candy, and bakery goods. ‘Pre-checkout bag’ does not include a bag used to prepackage items prior to their arrival in a store.”

“The average grocery store gives away over 2.2 million plastic produce bags per year at a cost of almost $16,000 annually,” said Farzan Dehmoubed, co-founder and CEO of Lotus Sustainables, a reusable grocery bag company based in Carlsbad, CA. “The waste and costs are enormous. For a retailer like Albertsons with 2,250+ stores nationwide, that’s almost 5 billion plastic bags at a cost of $35 million per year.”

Farzan Dehmoubed and Jennifer Duvall, Co-Founders, Lotus Sustainables

The new law follows on the heels of California’s 2016 legislation banning single-use plastic carryout bags. That first bill is what led Dehmoubed and his wife Jennifer Duvall to found Lotus Sustainables in 2017. The couple was looking for a reusable insulated grocery bag and couldn’t find an option they liked, so they decided to design their own. The result was the Lotus Trolley Bag—an accordion-style, multi-section set of bags that hang within a shopping cart.

“The average grocery store gives away over 2.2 million plastic produce bags per year at a cost of almost $16,000 annually.” - Farzan Dehmoubed

In addition to the Trolley Bag, Lotus Sustainables also offers two kinds of reusable, washable produce bags—one made of polyester mesh and the other of organic cotton mesh.

While Lotus Sustainables didn’t participate in lobbying for California’s pre-checkout bag ban, the company certainly supports its aim and had been eagerly awaiting its passage.

“The waste from plastic produce bags is enormous, and most plastic bag bills until now had ignored this important category,” Dehmoubed said. “Finally, we are putting the spotlight on this huge issue. The top three grocery chains in the country go through over 21 BILLION plastic produce bags a year. Finally, California is making a change in the right direction.”

Even though the law doesn’t go into effect until 2025, Lotus Sustainables is already at work supporting retailers to make the transition.

“Albertsons SoCal (along with now Albertsons Southern and Portland) are creating multiple dedicated homes in their produce departments for reusable Lotus Produce Bags,” said Dehmoubed, who points out that going from plastic produce bags to Lotus Produce Bags represents a shift from cost to profit for retailers.  

“The waste from plastic produce bags is enormous, and most plastic bag bills until now had ignored this important category. ... The top three grocery chains in the country go through over 21 BILLION plastic produce bags a year. Finally, California is making a change in the right direction.” - Farzan Dehmoubed

“Each Albertsons store will soon have four different areas in each produce section focused on reusable Lotus Produce Bags,” Dehmoubed said. “Sprouts is also launching a similar initiative with Lotus in California and Arizona stores this December in an effort to reduce plastic bag waste. Other chains like Target, NGVC, and GIANT have already seen the sell-through and success of this program.”

Target just recently expanded its distribution of Lotus Produce Bags (which are Lotus Sustainables’ top-selling item), and they are now available in over 1,400 stores.

“Our company focus is to be a trusted sustainability partner for retailers to help them create solutions that change habits and make an impact on plastic waste,” Dehmoubed said. “We specialize in the highest-quality reusable produce bags that allow the consumer to confidently reuse and wash these bags hundreds of times. We also specialize in custom merchandising solutions with our ‘Old Me, New Me’ campaign to tell the story and change habits. This has been a game changer for us and our clients like NGVC, Target, and Albertsons.”

“To date, we’ve helped eliminate over 3.5 billion plastic bags from circulation with our patented Lotus Trolley Bag and matching Lotus Reusable Produce Bags,” Dehmoubed said. “We are proud to lead the reusable produce bag industry as the largest manufacturer in the category with our Lotus Produce Bags in over 15,000 retail stores.”

“Our company focus is to be a trusted sustainability partner for retailers to help them create solutions that change habits and make an impact on plastic waste.” - Farzan Dehmoubed

Dehmoubed said he expects other states will soon follow California’s lead on banning plastic produce bags, just as many states banned single-use carryout plastic bags in the wake of the Golden State’s 2016 legislation.

“Seventy-five percent of the states in the country have some sort of plastic bag legislation on the books or passed,” Dehmoubed said. “Many of these bills will expand to include plastic produce bags, following California in this important change.”