The Massachusetts Senate passed legislation on Thursday that would ban single-use plastic shopping bags at retail shops across the state.
The “Act to Reduce Plastics”, which includes the bag ban and other initiatives to reduce plastic waste, now goes to the House for consideration.
Votes on a broader climate bill, and whether to include expanding the state’s bottle redemption system, were delayed until Friday.
The legislation banning plastic bags passed by the Senate would also require retailers to charge customers 10 cents for a paper bag. Half of that fee would be set aside for environmental protection measures across the state.
“What we’re really trying to do is encourage reuse,” said Janet Domenitz, executive director of MassPIRG. “So the ban on single use plastics gets rid of the most deleterious material. The fee on paper is a way to incentivize people bring your own bag.”
160 cities and towns in the state have already passed local bans on single-use plastic bags, Domenitz said.
“The thing is, they’re not uniform. Why would they be? You know, Somerville does something different from Bedford, does something different from Worcester.”
A statewide ban, she said, would provide consistency.
“Here in Massachusetts, we toss out 900,000 tons of plastic waste every year. That includes 2 billion plastic bags and 3.4 billion plastic bottles,” Senator Becca Rausch said at a press briefing before Thursday’s vote. The Democrat from Needham said the problem with plastics is that they never go away.
“They may sit in a landfill. They may be incinerated, both of which release microplastics and greenhouse gases back into the environment. They probably won’t be recycled because less than 10% of plastics are actually recycled in the United States. And plastics can persist in the environment for decades to centuries to an entire millennium. Since they don’t go away, the plastic bits creep into air, water, soil, plants, animals and our own bodies.”
Some senators raised concerns about the financial impacts of the bag ban.
“This is going to cost the consumers of Massachusetts more,” said Senator Peter Durant, a Worcester Republican, during debate on the Senate floor.
“In a state that already has an incredible cost of living, in a state where we’re trying to make it more affordable to be here, I think that this is something that ends up being a little bit too much -- too much for us to bear.”
The bill also includes a provision that would require restaurants to include plastic utensils in take-out orders only upon request. There are also several exemptions to the ban, including purchases of raw fish or meat, some clothing items, and when picking up prescriptions at a pharmacy.
It’s not the first time a plastic bag ban has been passed by the state Senate. Prior attempts have stalled in the House, but advocates say they’re optimistic about the prospects for the legislation this time.
