Scaling Sustainability: Partnering to Eliminate Single-Use Bag Waste in San Diego County
Breaking Up with Single-Use Bags in San Diego County
The Break Up With Single-Use Bags campaign aligns behavior change with waste reduction goals ahead of SB 1053’s implementation in 2026.
Photo courtesy of the County of San Diego
San Diego County was targeted as a prime location to implement the Break Up With Single-Use Bags campaign in part because CA Senate Bill 1053 (SB 1053), adopted in 2025, bans single-use plastic shopping bags. That bill was authored by CA Senator Catherine Blakespear (D-38), who added, “reducing single-use waste is key to a sustainable California. As we move toward a statewide transition away from plastic bags, the Break Up With Single-Use Bags campaign arrives at the perfect time, showcasing how businesses, communities, and individuals can work together to support meaningful, lasting change.” The San Diego region has historically been an early adopter of pollution reduction ordinances, including eliminating styrofoam food containers, plastic straws, and the intentional release of balloons. Residents are very nature-focused, with heavy attention paid to ocean conservation, providing an amazing opportunity for the adoption of sustainable behavior. Currently, San Diego County is on its way to achieving its sustainability goals of progressively diverting solid waste from landfills and achieving an 80% waste diversion by 2030. (citation https://www.sandiegocounty.gov/content/sdc/dpw/recycling/plan.html ) The Break Up With Single-Use Bags campaign aligns behavior change with waste reduction goals ahead of SB 1053’s implementation in 2026.
Courtesy: Closed Loop Partners
Retailers provide single-use bags to hold our purchases for the duration of our trip, from store to home. However, the environmental and financial costs of single-use bags aren't worth what is often just 12 minutes of convenience. Can an awareness campaign to encourage consumers to bring reusable bags encourage new behavior, and have a broad impact? This is what a new campaign in Southern California sets out to do.
The Break Up with Single-Use Bags campaign was launched by the Beyond the Bag Initiative, a collaboration created by the Closed Loop Center for the Circular Economy's Consortium to Reinvent the Retail Bag. The Closed Loop Center is an innovation firm that helps global brands, retailers and manufacturers solve their most pressing material challenges. It is part of Closed Loop Partners, a company that also includes one of the largest privately held recycling companies in the U.S. and a leading global circular economy capital management group.
The Southern California campaign is the largest retail rollout of its kind and includes prominent in-store instructional signage paired with social media messaging, encouraging consumers to use their reusable bags more frequently, or skip the bag all together. Launched across San Diego County, Orange County, and the Inland Empire, the Closed Loop Center engaged Solana Center for Environmental Innovation, a San Diego-based regional non-profit, to connect regional stakeholders with the initiative.
This campaign is a key part of the Closed Loop Center’s work, which spans four focus areas: material innovation, reuse systems, recycling improvement, and policy readiness. The Closed Loop Center’s focus on the circular economy––prioritizing natural resource efficiency, optimizing supply chains, and driving economic value––aligns with many of the initiatives Solana Center engages with in the San Diego region and statewide. Senator Blakespear has recognized Solana Center for Environmental Innovation as a leader in reducing waste, preventing pollution, and providing practical guidance for residents and jurisdictions. Since 1983, Solana Center has innovated climate solutions such as the first curbside recycling program in Southern California, as well as Food Cycle on Farmlands, a circular system created to divert organic material from the landfill while supporting regenerative agriculture. In 2015, this innovation was recognized by The Governor’s Environmental and Economic Leadership Award Program, California’s highest environmental honor.
Grounded in a shared focus on reuse and zero-waste initiatives that follow a circular systems approach, the Closed Loop Center looked to Solana Center for Environmental Innovation to be the on-the-ground support in San Diego, and a key implementation partner of Beyond the Bag to ensure an effective, impactful campaign. Given that preventing waste––instead of only dealing with waste at the end stage––is a more effective approach to positively impacting the state of our environment, breaking up with single-use bags offers a natural synergy.
“We are so excited about this public-private initiative. We are demonstrating how to make the possible practical. This is just the beginning.”
Solana Center’s deep, long-standing connection with the San Diego region, including jurisdictions, environmental stakeholders, media outlets, and community partners, helped strengthen the launch and impact of the Break Up With Single-Use Bags campaign. Through Solana Center’s connections and Beyond the Bag’s committed corporate partners, flyers can be seen in the windows and parking lots of stores across San Diego, as well as on social media, encouraging shoppers to reduce their single-use bag waste by bringing their own bags or skipping a bag altogether.
What the Beyond the Bag team is hearing so far is that customers are asking for practical options and simple reminders that make it easier to build new habits that move beyond flawed single-use bags. In the meantime, retailers value the campaign as a way to mitigate challenges with the state’s transition to paper bags while helping customers make choices that work better for them.
"They’re going away completely? I really don’t like paper bags so I’ll probably start bringing my own, then” - Customer in Santee, CA
“The signs have been helpful as we try to educate our customers on why plastic bags are going away. We’re using it as an opportunity to tell them to start bringing bags now, so they don’t have to pay later” - Retail employee in Encinitas, CA
Collaboration is key to campaign success and impact. The partnership between Solana Center for Environmental Innovation and the Closed Loop Center demonstrates what can be accomplished when dedicated individuals and organizations unify to accomplish a common goal. We can’t think of a better goal than eliminating single-use bags, saving business owners money, and helping consumers learn new sustainable practices.