Bans or restrictions on plastic bags have become increasingly widespread as a means to mitigate the environmental damage caused by modern life. Shopping bags are a particularly pernicious bit of plastic, as their thinness and light weight make them difficult to recycle and easy to spread throughout the environment.
There is no national ban on plastic shopping bags in the United States. However, 11 states—California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington—currently have statewide bans or restrictions. Additionally, although there is no statewide ban on plastic bags in Hawaii, every county in the Aloha State has enacted bans, effectively making plastic bags banned across the state.
Oh, and there are over 500 cities and municipalities in the country with some form of ban or restriction on plastic shopping bags. Just saying.
