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Three plastic bag producers have reached settlements with the California attorney general’s office over claims about recyclability, for a total of $3.35 million.
The settlements from Novolex, Inteplast Group and Mettler Packaging joined those from Revolution, Metro Poly, PreZero and Advance Polybag reached in October 2025, for a combined total of $5.1 million in penalties and fees from the seven producers.
Six of the producers also agreed to stop selling plastic bags in the state. This month California implemented SB 1053, which strengthened the existing SB 270 by banning all single-use plastic shopping bags.
In November 2022, Attorney General Rob Bonta initiated an investigation into bag producers, alleging that recyclability claims were misleading.
During the investigation, the state said, the producers did not produce documentation to show how many bags are recycled at their own facilities, identify what facilities in California recycle plastic bags, or quantify the percentage of plastic bags the producers sold to stores in California that were recycled.
The probe also surveyed waste processors and recyclers, and out of 69 facilities surveyed, “only two claimed to accept plastic bags, but could not confirm the bags were, in fact, recycled. This survey confirmed that the vast majority of facilities in California do not accept plastic bags or process them for recycling.”
In 2022, a GreenBlue study found that store drop-off programs in the state collected more than 8,700 tons of PE film each year, though the average resident must drive for 6.2 minutes to reach the nearest PE film recycling location.
And in 2025, the Plastics Industry Association launched a national film drop-off guide to help consumers find local recycling services, more than a year after a public-facing directory shut down.
The most recent settlement amounts were:
- Novolex: $1.65 million
- Inteplast: $1 million
- Mettler: $700,000
In a press release, the attorney general said, “The producers at issue here have provided billions of plastic bags used by California grocery retailers and have certified that these bags meet recyclability requirements as required by SB 270. However, despite the manufacturers’ claims and widespread consumer belief, these plastic bags cannot be recycled to any significant degree and thus are not ‘recyclable,’ let alone ‘recyclable in this state,’ as SB 270 required.”
