SINGLE USE PLASTIC BAGS

September 30, 2021

In June, House Bill 212, as amended, was passed by the Delaware State House and Senate.  Special thanks are extended to the primary sponsors and leaders on the legislation, Rep. Gerald Brady, Rep. Valerie Longhurst, Rep. Eric Morrison, and Senator Kyle Gay.  Governor John Carney signed HB212 into law on September 30, 2021.

HB212 closes the inadvertent loophole created when 2019's HB130 law which went into effect on January 1st allowing plastic bags greater than 2.25 mils thick.  It now clarifies the definition of truly reusable bags, largely by the definition including requisite “stitched handles” following the model set by neighboring New Jersey.  HB212 also expands the law to all size stores and not just the largest retailers.  It will take effect July 1, 2022.

BACKGROUND FAQs:

• Less than 10% of the “single-use” plastic or film carryout bags actually get reused or properly recycled, they are still largely single-use and 90% end up in landfills or littering our communities and environment
• Single-use products such as plastic bags perpetuate a throwaway mindset and the extraction of oil and natural gas, and refining, with devastating environmental impacts to our air and water
• Although the bag law enacted in 2019 (HB130) went into effect 1/1/21, plastic bags continue to be found during Delaware beach cleanups.
• Plastic film bags continue to pollute our communities and the natural environment, harm animals, and contribute to the toxins which result when plastics break down and become part of our very own food chain.
• Recent studies show that these plastics – which do not biodegrade – break down into small microparticles which are now found in 90% of our table salt, in the fish we eat, and more.  It is estimated that humans are now consuming a credit card size amount of plastic every day. 
• DNREC and DSWA have seen a huge increase in these 2.25+ mil plastic film bags being put into curbside recycling since 1/1/21, thereby wreaking havoc at the Materials Recycling Facilities, causing delay and increased taxpayer expense as these facilities must shut down to clean out the plastic bags which clog the machinery.
• Many retailers already support the goal of this legislation by not providing plastic bags at all for free – including Aldi, Costco, Walmart, Dollar Tree and many more.  This legislation levels the playing field across Delaware, bringing fairness to all retailers.

In 2019, House Bill 130 was passed which  banned single use plastic bags up to 2.25 mils thick from being used at the largest retailers across Delaware (those 7,000 sq.ft. or larger, and those with three or more locations of at least 3,000 sq.ft.).   This new law became effective on January 1, 2021.  Thank you to the prime sponsors and leaders on this important piece of legislation: Rep. Gerald Brady, Rep. Valerie Longhurst, and Sen. Trey Paradee.

Dover, DE (June 6, 2019) – 

This afternoon Delaware’s State Senate passed House Bill 130 which will ban single use plastic bags as of January 1, 2021 and will join California, New York and Vermont as the states which have passed legislation to address the growing crisis of plastic pollution. Governor Carney has pledged to sign the bill into law.

House Bill 130 introduced by Representative Brady, and co-sponsored by Senator Trey Paradee, moves the existing at-store recycling program regarding the use of single-use plastic bags to a new level by actually banning the use of thin plastic bags by large retailers. The bill allows for several exceptions such as meat. The goal is to encourage a shift to to reusable bags. Additionally, the bill 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.

According to Dee Durham, co-founder and co-chair of Plastic Free Delaware, an environmental group focused on education and advocacy on issues surrounding plastic pollution in Delaware, “millions of plastic bags end up as litter strewn across our communities, roadsides, parks, forests, rivers and coastlines, and clog our storm water management systems resulting in increased cleanup costs.” Additionally, Plastic Free Delaware contends that single-use plastic bags contribute a toll on human health and well-being as toxic plastic particles are now being found in the food chain.

The insidious development of a “disposable” culture is exemplified by the exponential growth in the use - and abuse - of single-use plastics. Our communities, roadsides and marine environments are choking in trash and plastic litter. It is estimated that the average American uses 500 plastic carryout bags annually. Single use plastics are made from natural gas or petroleum, a fossil fuel in limited supply 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. 

Plastic Free Delaware applauds Rep. Brady and Sen. Paradee and the other legislative leaders for tackling the crisis of plastic pollution with this first step addressing single use plastic bags. 

Plastic Free Delaware is the only statewide organization focused on addressing the scourge of plastic pollution in Delaware by addressing the root causes through education, awareness building, and advocacy initiatives with a current focus on single-use plastic bags, straws, polystyrene, and balloons, for the health and benefit of animals, humans, our communities and our environment.

PROVEN BENEFITS:

• After implementation of fee-based laws in Washington, D.C. and Ireland, the use of plastic shopping bags dropped 65-90%
• Delaware’s local governments would save taxpayer dollars on unnecessary costs associated with stormwater system clogs and cleanouts as well as litter cleanups caused by plastic bags
• Materials Recycling Facilities likewise would reduce daily delays and costs due to plastic bags which clog up material sorting equipment on a regular basis
• Retailers would partly recoup costs associated with complying with the current law especially with the drop in market value of plastic and film, benefit from added income from plastic and paper bag sales, and elimination of rebates for reusable bags

STATE FACTS:

• Although many other countries, as well as U.S. counties and cities have taken similar action, Delaware could be the First State.  State level action would avoid a mish mash of varying local laws which are more difficult for businesses to manage as evidenced by the experience in California
  
• A statewide approach levels the playing field for both retailers and consumers
• With no plastic bag manufacturing plants in Delaware, no jobs would be lost
• After cigarette butts, plastic bags are the second most common type of trash found each year during coastal cleanups.  In 2014’s one-day Coastal Cleanup, 2,777 plastic bags were picked up along Delaware’s 95 miles of coastline
• The production and transportation of plastic bags represents an unsustainable and wasteful use of non-renewable resources and unnecessarily contributes more pollution and toxins to our environment.  An estimated 12 million barrels of oil (or natural gas equivalent) is used to make the 14 billion plastic bags Americans use each year, plus transportation and disposal costs
• Countless fugitive plastic bags end up as litter strewn across our roadsides, parks, forests, rivers and coastlines, and clogging our storm water management systems resulting in hidden cleanup and health costs

ANIMALS:

• Single use plastic carryout bags have significant impacts on marine animals including fatalities of turtles, dolphins, birds and whales[i]
• “Disposable” bags also harm domestic animals as fugitive bags end up being ingested in hay, grains, and pastures leading to colic and injury/death

HEALTH:

• Plastic bags don't biodegrade, they photodegrade—breaking down into smaller and smaller toxic bits contaminating soil and waterways and entering into the food chain where animals and, ultimately, humans ingest those materials
• A recent study in California and Indonesia found 28% of the fish and shellfish in markers contained plastic particles or “man-made” fiber in their guts
• The life cycle of plastic bags threatens public health. Plastic bags do not biodegrade in the marine environment.  Instead, they photo-degrade (break down from exposure to sunlight), oxidize and physically break down from wave action.  This creates increasingly smaller particles of plastic which absorb pollutants from surrounding water.[ii]
• Plastic particles concentrate metals, endocrine-disrupting chemicals, and persistent organic pollutants, including PCBs flame retardants.  Small plastic particles in the ocean have contained concentrations of PCBs more than 1,000,000 times greater than the surrounding water.  When eaten by marine species, especially plankton, these pollutants enter the marine food web. The bioaccumulation of toxics in marine predators and commercially valuable species has far-reaching effects on human health.[iii]
• In addition to the secondary health impacts of plastic bags that contaminate seafood, the manufacturing to production to disposing of these bags causes many health problems from respiratory illness to carcinogens.  As a large proportion of plastic bag manufacture in the U.S. relies on hydraulically-fractured natural gas, plastic bag use is linked to the environmental impacts of fracking.[iv] Due to a loophole in the 2005 Energy Policy Act, fracking is currently exempt from numerous environmental protection laws, including the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, National Environmental Policy Act, Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act, and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. 

GENERAL:

• Only about 7-9% of plastic bags are ever recycled or reused – the other 90%+ end up in the landfill at best, and in our communities, forests, watersheds and marine environments at worst.
• Plastic bags were only invented in 1977 – a relatively recent and reversible – bad habit
• An estimated 380 billion plastic bags or wraps are thrown away in the U.S. each year with an estimated 17 cents per bag in estimated cleanup and disposal costs, wasting millions of tax dollars
• There’s no such thing as free!  When retailers give away “free” bags, their costs are passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices – and the cost of cleanup is also passed on to taxpayers. It is actually more fair to only charge those consumers who take bags from retailers, so the costs of bags are not borne by those who do not need them or choose to use reusable bags
• Retailers testified before the Senate Natural Resources committee in 2015 that they prefer a statewide solution rather than myriad local ordinances as the latter would be difficult for retailers to track and manage across the state. Also, retailers are concerned that small coverage areas might encourage shoppers to take their business elsewhere, outside of the local ordinance area to other retailers not covered under such ordinances  
• House Bill 15 from 2009 (Rep. Valerie Longhurst), the current law in effect regarding plastic bag recycling sunsets in December 2017, a deadline purposefully set to encourage the State to take the next, more meaningful, step in addressing these concerns.

[i] Researchers have commonly found plastic bags in the digestive tracts of dead sea turtles.   [Source: See N. Mrosovsky et al., Leatherback Turtles: The Menace of Plastic, 58 MARINE POLLUTION BULL. 287, 287-88 (2009) (noting that 37.2% of Leatherback turtle necropsies from 1968 to 2009 showed plastic in their stomachs, and plastic bags were the most commonly found item).

[ii] National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 2011; O'Brine and Thompson, 2010.

[iii] Andrady, 2011; Betts, 2008; Cole et al., 2011; Derriak, 2002; Moore et al., 2001; Moore, 2008; National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 2011; United Nations Environment Programme, 2009; Zarfl and Matthies, 2010.

[iv] True, 2012. 

We, the undersigned, support statewide action to curtail the provision by retail stores of free "single-use" plastic bags and we urge statewide elected officials to pass legislation to that effect.  This action will promote the health and safety of wildlife and watersheds, reduce toxins in our food chain, protect the natural beauty of our communities, conserve our resources, and reduce trash and storm water management costs to taxpayers:

Bethany Beach Chamber of Commerce

Brandywine Sprouts, Roots & Shoots Chapter of the Jane   Goodall Institute

BringYourOwnBag Delaware

Bucktoe Creek Preserve 

Center for the Inland Bays

Citizens’ Climate Lobby-Lower DE

Claude E. Phillips Herbarium, at DE State University

The Claymont Dust Study Team

Clean Air Council

Council of Civic Organizations of Brandywine Hundred (CCOBH)

Delaware Alliance for Community Advancement 

Delaware Audubon Society

Delaware Center for Horticulture

Delaware Clean Water Action

Delaware Greenways

Delaware Interfaith Power & Light

Delaware Local Food Exchange

Delaware Nature Society

Delaware Plastic Pollution Action Coalition

Delaware Recycling Public Advisory Council (RPAC)

Delaware Riverkeeper Network

Delaware Votes for Animals

Delaware Zoological Society

Delawareans for Social and Economic Justice

Delmarva Ornithological Society

Elks Creek Watershed Association

Episcopal Diocese of Delaware

First Unitarian Universalist Church of Wilmington

Green Party Delaware

Green Sangha

Harvest Market Natural Foods

Humane Society of the United States of America

Inland Bays Foundation

The Land Conservancy for Southern Chester County

League of Women Voters, Delaware

Lewes Chamber of Commerce Visitor Center

MERR Institute, Inc.

NAACP, Newark Branch

Nurses Healing Our Planet, Delaware Nurses Association

OLLI Eco Team

Old Brandywine Village

Plastic Pollution Coalition

PlasticBagLaws.org

Progressive Democrats for Delaware

Rehoboth Beach Chamber

S.A.V.E.

Sierra Club, Delaware Chapter

Students for the Environment (University of Delaware)

Surfrider Foundation, Delaware Chapter

Ten Thousand Villages, Wilmington

The 5 Gyres Institute

The Nature Conservancy, Delaware Chapter

White Clay Watershed Association

Wilmington City Council

Wilmington in Transition

https://www.capegazette.com/article/kudos-passing-plastic-bag-legislation/228312

https://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/politics/2021/04/28/delaware-plastic-bag-ban-paper-bags/4853521001/ 

http://wilmingtonnewsjournal.de.newsmemory.com/?publink=44a5da970

https://www.capegazette.com/article/ferry-restaurants-join-surfrider%E2%80%99s-ocean-friendly-program/180230 

4/18/19

Delaware Way, Delaware Earth Day News And Events Plus Wide Support For Single-Use Plastic Ban Legislation!

Delaware Online, Delaware might be the next state to ban plastic shopping bags

NBC 10 News, New Bill Would Restrict the Use of Plastic Bags in Delaware

WDEL, VIDEO | Plastic, single-use plastic bags targeted for partial ban in Delaware

WBOC, Delaware Eyes Ban on Single-Use Plastic Bags

Delaware 105.9 FM, New bill would seriously limit plastic bag use in Delaware

Delaware Business Now, Bill aims to end retail plastic bag use by 2021

Plastic Bags Elsewhere

WHYY, What other states are doing about plastic bags — and what might happen with Pa.’s proposed ban

4/9/19

Delaware Public Media, Are Plastic Bag Bans Garbage?

2018-4-27 CAPE GAZETTE - NAACP Youth Explore Clean Water Issues

22017-12-7   DELAWARE PUBLIC MEDIA - With help from UD class, Lewes businesses consider alternatives for plastic bags

2016-5-4 DELAWARE PUBLIC MEDIA - Plastic Bag fee Lifted Out of Committee 

2016-4-24 NEWS JOURNAL - Guinness World Record Bag Ball

2016-3-6 WHYY Newsworks - Delaware Shoppers May Have to Pay for Plastic

2016-3-7 WDEL Delaware to consider 5 cent fee

2016-2-23 NEWS JOURNAL Wilmington City Council Supports Five Cent Fee

2016-1-22 NEWS JOURNAL Editorial - Doerffler Letter

2015-5-27 DELAWARE PUBLIC MEDIA - Legislation Will Charge Fee for Plastic Bags

2012-5-23 NEWS JOURNAL Kids Pitch: Ditch the Plastic Ba

 Surfrider Foundation Rise Above Plastics Campaign

Check out this great toolkit resource from Surfrider! 

Bag Rap!! Plastic Bag Laws 

http://greensangha.org/plastics-campaign/ 

Plastic Pollution Coalition 

http://www.bagmonster.com/ 

My Plastic-Free Life Plastic Free Schools 

http://www.plasticpollutioncoalition.org/guides-schools 

NOAA Marine Debris Program Environmental Protection Agency 

Surfrider Foundation 

The Story of Stuff 

The Five Gyres Institute 

100 Steps to a Plastic Free Life 

Thanks to a decade of advocacy by Plastic Free Delaware and many other volunteers, as well as the leadership of State Rep. Valerie Longhurst, Rep. Gerald Brady, and Sen. Trey Paradee, as of January 1, 2021, "single use" plastic carryout bags less than 2.25 mls thick cannot be sold or distributed by large retailers in Delaware.  Large retailers must also continue to offer the recycling bins for plastic bags and film as despite the new law these will not evaporate from our lives.

2021 - House Bill 212

Passed by both the House and Senate in June 2021, and signed by the Governor in September 2021. Redefines allowable reusable bags as having stitched handles and expands law to all stores.  Effective date 7/1/2022.

2019 - House Bill 130 

Passed and signed into law, making Delaware the fourth state in the U.S. to pass a law to address plastic bag pollution.  Went into effect 1/1/2021.  The new law impacts large retailers (more than 7,000 sq.ft or ones with three or more locations of 3,000 sq.ft. or more).  Only addresses thin plastic bags less than 2.25 mls thick.  Time will tell if this new law significantly addresses the problem, or if it needs to be strengthened further.

2017 - House Bill 215 

Made the current law regarding recycling bins at large retailers permanent (deleted the sunset clause), and added a reporting requirement for large retailers to report annually the # of single-use carryout bags they distribute.

2015-2016 - House Bill 202  (DID NOT PASS) 

Would have placed a 5 cent fee on plastic carryout bags at large retailers.  Had widespread bipartisan support.  Passed House Natural Resources Committee unanimously.

2013 - House Bill 198 

Extended Sunset for 2009 law for three more years

2009 - House Bill 15

On August 17, 2009, Delaware’s Governor Jack Markell signed a new law that was aimed at promoting the recycling of plastic bags across the state.  It created requirements for large retailers (7,000 sq.ft. or those with three or more locations of 3,000 sq.ft or more) to provide recycling bins for plastic carryout bags and plastic film in prominent locations, and educational signage.  Championed by Rep. Valerie Longhurst, the law went into effect on December 1st, 2009.  Stores were also required to provide reusable bags for purchase and include a message encouraging customers to recycle their plastic bags.  With this, Delaware was the third state to pass a mandatory plastic bag recycling program, behind California and New York.  Yet over the subsequent years, plastic bags continued to cover our landscapes, pollute our watersheds, clog our storm water systems and our recycling facilities, causing blight in our communities, added taxpayer expense, and delay/expense in our recycling system. 

2009 - Legislation led by Rep. Valerie Longhurst established the at-store plastic bag and film recycling program.

It is estimated that more than 54% of the world's population is now covered under laws either completely banning plastic bag or laws placing fees on bags which greatly reduces their use but provides shoppers options and simply externalizes an existing cost.

In the U.S., California has passed a statewide law and Hawaii is fully covered by county laws.  Several other states are considering laws. Many other counties and cities also have laws banning or placing fees on single use plastic bags, including Washington D.C., Boston and Chicago.

HERE is a list of state and local laws in the U.S. And THIS SITE and THIS SITE also keep track of existing laws.