Watch Out Masschusetts! Statewide Ban on Plastic Shopping Bags Could be Happening Soon

If you live or work in Massachusetts, you may want to make sure you have a reusable bag with you at all times because come August 1st of this year, you just might need it!

According to the Associated Press, a legislative panel is considering a statewide ban on single-use plastic shopping bags in the Bay State.

Now, under this legislation, which is scheduled for a public hearing today (April 2nd) by the Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture Committee, retail establishments would be barred from providing customers with the single-use bags after August 1, 2019.

If this legislation passes, stores would then be allowed to charge customers 10 cents for recycled paper bags or 10 cents or more for reusable grocery bags.

A number of communities in Massachusetts, including Boston, already ban plastic shopping bags that critics say cannot be recycled and add to the state's solid waste and pollution problems.

The legislation sponsored by Democratic Sen. Jamie Eldridge of Acton and Democratic Rep. Lori Erlich of Marblehead would extend that prohibition to all cities and towns.