Pennsylvania Proposes Statewide Ban on Plastic Bags

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): A Pennsylvania lawmaker has proposed a legislation that seeks to ban use of plastic bags in the state. It also proposes imposition of fee on alternative paper bags. Rep. Brian Sims, D-Philadelphia introduced House Bill 1382, which has now been referred to the House Finance Committee.

The bill proposes to ban businesses from distributing single-use plastic bags to customers. It proposes 15-cent fee on paper bags. Any Pennsylvania business found distributing plastic bags would be imposed a fine of $50 on first violation, $100 on second violation and $200 for third or subsequent violation. As per rough estimates, Pennsylvanians consume around 4.6 billion plastic bags every year.

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The state would keep the entire fee collected by businesses whose annual revenue is in excess of $10 million. 50% of the collected fee will be refunded to those businesses whose revenues fall between $1 million and $10 million per annum. For businesses having annual revenue less than $1 million, whole of the collected paper bag fee will be refunded. The money would be utilized by the state to fund its hazardous sites cleanup program.

Currently there are ten states in the country which have bans on plastic bags in place- California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Vermont and Washington.