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Single-use plastic bags are officially illegal in California, marking the first time an entire state has managed to pass through a ban. Starting in July 2015, plastic bags will disappear from grocery stores; a year later, the same will be true in convenience stores and pharmacies. For a 10-cent minimum fee, customers who forgot their own reusable bags can cart their wares in a recycled paper or a reusable plastic bag instead.

The ban is a clear victory for environmental stewardship, but that hasn’t stopped some from arguing otherwise. The American Progressive Bag Alliance, the industry group that lead the opposition, insists that getting rid of plastic bags will end up harming the environment. Writing for Bloomberg View, Adam Minter points out that we throw out a lot more of other things, like food and furniture, and contends that the bill’s impact will be mainly symbolic.

I don’t think it makes much sense to debate whether targeting plastic bags, specifically, is the best use of environmentalists’ efforts; anything that’s both disposable and non-biodegradable deserves to be rethought. Plastic, as a whole, accounts for 13 percent of solid waste generated in the U.S., and only 9 percent of it gets recycled. Some 10 metric tons of plastic fragments are carried to the Pacific Ocean each day from the Los Angeles area alone. And while plastic bags may not be the biggest source of our major plastic pollution problem, they’re a significant one. The U.S. goes through about 100 billion of them each year; California, 13 billion. The ban, proponents say, will save the state $25 million in cleanup costs.