Portland’s city council unanimously voted to ban single-use plastic bags starting Oct. 15.
Portland’s city council unanimously voted to ban single-use plastic bags starting Oct. 15.
The ordinance only applies to single-use plastic bags provided at stores’ checkout counters. It doesn’t apply to a “non-handled bag used to protect a purchased item from damaging or contaminating other purchased items when placed in a recycled paper bag or reusable bag” or to bags provided by pharmacists for prescription medicine.
Stores affected by the ban have more than 10,000 square feet of retail space, annual sales of $2 million and sell mostly groceries. Stores can ask for a waiver of the rules until March 1, 2012, to allow “for the orderly drawdown of an existing inventory of single-use plastic checkout bags,” according to the ordinance.
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