Gov. John Carney on Monday signed legislation that largely prohibits retailers in Delaware from providing single-use carryout plastic bags to customers, a measure intended to reduce the amount of plastic bags making their way to landfills, roadways and stormwater systems.
The ban applies to stores with more than 7,000 square feet of sales space, and chain stores with three or more locations having at least 3,000 square feet of sales space. Restaurants are excluded from the bag ban, which also allows exceptions for bags used to wrap meat, fish, flowers or plants, or that contain unwrapped food items. The legislation is set to go into effect on Jan. 1, 2021.
Gov. John Carney signs a bill that largely prevents retailers from offering customers single-use plastic bags.
The goal is to encourage a shift to to reusable bags. Additionally, the legislation aims to clean up Delaware’s communities and watersheds, reduce storm water and trash management costs to taxpayers, and promote the health and safety of watersheds, wildlife and humans, and the ecosystem’s food chain.
Every year, the average American uses approximately 500 plastic carryout bags. Single use plastics are made from natural gas or petroleum, a fossil fuel with extensive environmental impacts in its extraction, production, and transportation.
Along Delaware's coastlines, despite the current voluntary recycling law put in place in 2009, plastic carryout bags remain one of the most prevalent and pervasive types of litter found annually during the annual Coastal Cleanup which is only three hours each September. Statistics maintained by Delaware’s Recycling Public Advisory Council indicate that the current law has not achieved its goal of shifting shoppers’ norms to reusable bags. In addition, plastic is the most prevalent item found in a 2018 study of Delaware’s roadside litter.