Assemblyman Marc Levine pushing statewide plastic bag ban

<p>Single-use plastic bags would be banned in California under legislation introduced this week by a state lawmaker whose district includes Sonoma County.</p><p>Assemblyman Marc Levine, D-San Rafael, introduced AB 158 in an effort to “ban these bags once and for all.”</p><p>The bill would prohibit grocery stores with more than $2 million in annual sales or retailers with more than 10,000 square feet of floor space from providing single-use plastic bags to customers.</p><p>These stores would be required to make reusable grocery bags available for sale.</p><p>The new rules would take effect in 2015.</p><p>A separate proposal to ban plastic bags in Sonoma County is moving forward and could be in place by this summer. An estimated 300 million plastic and paper bags are used in the county every year.</p>