On Tuesday, Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill creating a ban against single-use plastic bags in various retail venues.

According to Los Angeles Times, California is the first state to place a ban on plastic bags. Under the statewide ban, 127 cities and countries in the state have adopted "local bag ordinances," according to the newspaper, that prevent checkout stands in supermarkets, convenience stores, pharmacies and liquor stores from bagging items in single-use plastic bags.

Brown promised to sign the bill, introduced by Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Pacoima, in a gubernatorial debate earlier this month.

"This bill is a step in the right direction -- it reduces the torrent of plastic polluting our beaches, parks and even the vast ocean itself," Brown said in a statement Tuesday. "We're the first to ban these bags, and we won't be the last."

Under the new bill, stores will sell paper and reusable plastic bags for a minimum of 10 cents each. The state will give $2 million in loans to help businesses adapt.

The law will apply to grocery stories and pharmacies on July 1, 2015, and liquor stores and convenience stores one year later.

"A throwaway society is not sustainable," Padilla said Tuesday. "This new law will greatly reduce the flow of billions of single-use plastic bags that litter our communities and harm our environment each year."

The bill has been praised by environmental groups.

"California policy makers have made a clear and strong statement in enacting the bag ban: Producers are responsible for the end of life of their products," Mark Murray, executive director of Californians Against Waste, said.

The American Progressive Bag Alliance, an industry group, on the other hand is in strong, saying the ban will result in the loss of thousands of jobs and gains of store owners charging for bags. The group plans on getting signatures for a referendum to repeal the bill on the November 2016 ballot, according to a statement.

"Senator Padilla's bill was never legislation about the environment," Lee Califf, the group's executive director, said. "It was a back room deal between the grocers and union bosses to scam California consumers out of billions of dollars without providing any public benefit -- all under the guise of environmentalism. ... It would jeopardize thousands of California manufacturing jobs, hurt the environment, and fleece consumers for billions."

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Follow Scharon Harding on Twitter: @ScharHar.

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