Philly’s ban on single-use plastic bags moves toward passage into law

Bye Bye Single-Use Plastic Bags

City Council pushed ahead with a ban on all single-use plastic bags Thursday with a unanimous vote on a newly amended bill.

Supporters believe the bag ban will pass through City Council next week and move to Mayor Jim Kenney’s desk. He is expected to sign the bill into law before the end of the year.

The ban would go into effect on July 2, 2020, at which point retailers in the city must switch to paper bags, which are costlier but can be recycled.

Philadelphians receive about one billion plastic bags per year, Welde estimates. Plastic bags are not recyclable curbside and usually end up in landfills, on the streets or floating into local waterways, where they can take up to 500 years to break down. Plastic bags are the fifth most-littered item in the city, according to the city’s 2018 litter index.

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