States Ban Single-Use Plastic Bags

Legislatures in Vermont, Maine, Oregon, Delaware, Connecticut and New York have all passed bills banning single-use plastic bags. The passage of these laws is growing a list of states with legislation on single-use plastics: Hawaii and California have already adopted similar laws.

· New York will enforce its plastic bag ban starting on March 1, 2020. The new law bans most single-plastic bags in retail and other stores.

· Vermont will ban single use plastic bags in stores and restaurants starting July 1, 2020. The legislation also prohibits restaurants from providing single-use plastic straws unless requested and bans the sale of expanded polystyrene food service products.

· Effective January 1, 2020,Maine will prohibit retail stores from providing single-use plastic bags.

· Oregon’s retail stores and restaurants will not be allowed to provide customers with single-use plastic bags starting in January 2020. As an alternative, stores and restaurants can provide paper checkout bags, reusable fabric checkout bags or reusable plastic checkout bags for a minimum of 5 cents each.

· With an effective date of January 1, 2021, Delaware’s ban prohibits bags that are “made from non-compostable plastic and not specifically designed and manufactured to be reusable.”

· Between August 1, 2019 and June 30, 2021 Connecticut will impose a 10% tax on single-use plastic bags that are less than four millimeters thick. After July 1, 2021, such bags will be banned. Stores will be permitted to charge customers a fee for single-use plastic bags.