California, the U.S.’s most populous state, has suspended its 4-year-old ban on single-use plastic bags because of the coronavirus. The move has potential implications for the promotional products industry.

Other states, including Maine and New York, have taken similar steps amid the worst pandemic the nation has seen in more than 100 years. California’s rollback, however, is perhaps particularly relevant as the state was a pacesetter in the movement to ban plastic bags and is often at the forefront of advancing eco-friendly policies.

Despite the green leanings, California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order on April 23 that allows retailers in the Golden State to provide customers with single-use plastic bags for free for 60 days.

Under state legislation adopted in 2016, retailers have been obligated to charge patrons at least 10 cents for a paper bag or reusable bag. The rules were intended to encourage Californians to use reusable bags, like grocery totes, for shopping.

Still, certain studies have suggested that reusable bags, when not cleaned properly, can become veritable petri dishes for bacteria and the like. That’s led retail, grocery and plastic industry advocates to call on legislators to at least temporarily suspend single-use plastic bans to better protect retail/grocery workers.

“It is critical to protect the public health and safety and minimize the risk of COVID-19 exposure for workers engaged in essential activities, such as those handling reusable grocery bags,” Newsom’s order said in explaining the decision to temporarily lift the ban on plastic bags.

Some environmentalists and other ban advocates have called studies linking reusable bags to increased disease spread dubious. They note, among other things, that reusable bags are not necessarily any more or less contaminated than other surfaces at stores.

Eco-focused organizations like Ocean Conservancy further argue that there’s a dearth of evidence that single-use plastic bags will better protect frontline workers. “Right now, the data indicate that the coronavirus actually persists longer on plastics than on other materials,” the organization wrote in a recent blog post. “This suggests that bags made of paper are likely to be less risky than those made of plastics.”

In an article in The New York Times, the executive director of Californians Against Waste said a better alternative to reversing prohibitions on single-use plastic bags would be to have shoppers bag their own groceries/goods. Mark Murray said the practice is endorsed by California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health. Provided that people do their own bagging, “reusable bags are perfectly safe, and pose zero threat to store employees and other customers,” Murray told the Times.

Plastic bag bans can have implications for the promotional products industry. Some believe the bans can engender opportunities to sell more reusable totes. Prior to the coronavirus outbreak, distributors in New York said the ban there would create ample chances for sales of the reusable alternatives.

It’s too soon to say if ban rollbacks or potential stigma about reusable bags could contribute to an overall decline in sales of branded reusable bags in the promo space, industry executives say. Right now, according to some distributors, it appears to be a wash.

“For every lost order for reusable grocery bags that we’ve had because they are no longer welcome in the stores, we have seen an order from restaurants that are using them for delivery and pickup,” Gregg Emmer, vice president/chief marketing officer for Top 40 distributor Kaeser & Blair (asi/238600), told Counselor.

The increase in plastic bag bans in recent years has been part of an effort to reduce plastic litter and pollution. Ban proponents say the bag pollution spoils natural habitat and poses a danger to wildlife, which can choke on or become caught in the disposables.

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