Plastic Bag Ban headed to the Governor Brown's desk

California may soon be the first state to have a ban on single use plastic bags.

A ban on single use plastic bags is already in place in South Lake Tahoe and 90 other cities and counties in the state of California, but that may soon change. If Governor Brown signs the bill that was sent to him on Friday, the whole state will have a ban on plastic bags for grocery stores and large pharmacies in 2015 and convenience stores in 2016.

South Lake Tahoe's ban has prohibited single use plastic bags in grocery stores since January and was to move to retail stores this October. Three City Council members prevented that move and held off the second phase of the ban for one year until October of 2015.

The bill (Assembly Bill 207) was introduced in February of 2013 had stalled in the Assembly last year by failing to get the support need to move to the senate.

But that has changed and the Senate approved the ban by a vote of 22-15 after Thursday's passing in the Assembly by a vote of 44-29.

The amended bill includes $2 million in loans to help manufacturers shift to producing reusable bags and lets grocers charge 10 cents each for paper and reusable bags.

One of the most contentious debates seen in the legislature saw aggressive lobbying by environmentalists and plastic bag manufacturers. What some experts see as the turning point was the backing of the ban by a prominent California grocery clerk union, the United Food and Commercial Workers Union.

"We live in a throw-away society," said Assemblyman Bill Quirk, D-Hayward. "What this bill does is to make an effort to do one little thing: Get people to use reusable bags."