When Washington’s ban on single-use plastic bags went into effect in October 2021, the goal was to reduce plastic waste by changing shopping habits. Rather than walking out of the grocery store with a dozen or more flimsy plastic bags, shoppers would bring their own reusable bags. If shoppers chose not to bring their own bags, they had the option of purchasing heavier, reusable plastic bags.
Has the law been effective? It’s early yet, but the bag ban doesn’t seem to have done much to keep plastic out of the waste stream.
“We do know that plastic bags and plastic wrap continue to be a source of contamination in recycling carts in the county — and the frequency at which we’re seeing that contamination is similar now to before the ban,” said Marissa Armstrong, spokeswoman for Clark County Public Health, which oversees garbage and recycling services.
Armstrong said collecting data about recycling contamination is difficult because it’s not just plastic bags that mistakenly end up in recycling carts. Unrecyclable bubble wrap and plastic clamshell containers mingle with the plastic that can be recycled, such as milk jugs, making it impossible to “distinguish between plastic bags that are banned and other plastic wrap,” she said.
Locally, shoppers may be using fewer plastic bags, but because the reusable bags are heavier, the weight of discarded plastic hasn’t been reduced.
Each year, trash and recycling collector Waste Connections samples what customers are putting into their recycling carts.
“We go out and select certain routes throughout the county,” said Derek Ranta, district manager for Waste Connections. “We don’t tell the customers because we don’t want them to change their behavior.”
Workers sort, separate and weigh the sampled material — cardboard, glass, plastic, paper, etc.
While Waste Connections doesn’t count the number of individual plastic bags, it does weigh the amount of plastic coming through. This year’s study found the total weight of plastics remained roughly unchanged.
More info coming
The state may have more information about the bag ban’s effects later this year. Carolyn Bowie, recycling specialist for the state Department of Ecology, said the 2020 bag-ban law tasks the state Department of Commerce with writing a report for the Legislature. That report is due in December.
“It has several requirements to it, including evaluating the quantities of plastic and paper bags that are distributed to customers, the impact of the pass-through charge, along with a lot of other things,” Bowie said.
She said the state is working with retailers, plastic and paper bag manufacturers, environmental advocates and governmental agencies, including Ecology, to produce the report. Bowie also noted not every law passed by the Legislature requires such in-depth reporting, so this presents a unique opportunity “to really examine the impact of this law from a bunch of different angles.”
While that report is being completed, Ecology has been collecting other data. Even if the number of bags in the waste stream decreases, the total tonnage of plastic may continue to increase, Bowie said. The requirement for bag thickness will increase in January 2026. The current thickness requirement is 2.5 mils, and that will go up to 4 mils. (Also in January 2026, the price of a bag will go up from 8 cents to 12 cents.) A mil is equal to 1/1000 of an inch. For comparison, the old single-use plastic bags were typically 0.5 mils, a bread bag is 1.5 mils and a standard kitchen garbage bag is just under 1 mil.
Unlike single-use plastic bags, Bowie said the bags shoppers now receive are required to be labeled as reusable. They are intended to be reused as many as 125 times, she said.
But many shoppers still treat the heavier bags like single-use bags, reusing them perhaps only once or twice. Bowie said she’s heard of people using them as trash can liners or for picking up after their dogs. She said Ecology is working to inform residents about how the bags are different and how they can be reused.
“We have conducted several education campaigns to promote the general reuse of bags. We have flyers and social media images that we’ve compiled with the message of ‘BYOB — bring your own bag.’ That is definitely the ideal behavior for anyone going shopping,” Bowie said.
Vancouver resident Marc Veneroso had been doing that long before the state ban went into effect. Although it took a while to get into the habit of leaving bags in the car and then remembering to bring them into the store, it’s second nature now.
“I also have several nylon shopping bags that I’ve learned to fold and tuck into a compact size. I have some of those stashed in various places (glove box, suitcase, backpack, etc.), so if I’m shopping, but not for groceries, I’ll slip one in my pocket and have it ready when I need it,” he said.
It’s trickier to avoid bags when ordering groceries for curbside pickup or delivery, a more common practice since the COVID-19 pandemic. Veneroso said he has a neighbor who doesn’t drive and relies on grocery deliveries.
“Every week or so, she acquires another half-dozen or more of the reusable bags, with a large label sticker on each one with her name (which are) impossible to remove,” he said. “Seems there should be a better alternative. Now, instead of six to eight thin plastic bags to send to their ultimate destination, there’s probably three times as much plastic film being used.”
Plastic education
Plastic remains a relatively small portion, at least by weight, of all materials recycled by Waste Connections.
“It’s 4 percent of what we collect in the curbside program,” Ranta said.
He said studying the materials customers put in their blue recycling carts helps the company target its educational efforts by both location and type of recycling. Just because a piece of plastic has the chasing-arrows symbol on it doesn’t mean it can actually be recycled.
In the most recent audit, conducted in May, 19 percent of the materials placed in blue carts could not be recycled, Ranta said. That’s a nearly 5 percent decrease from last year for single-family homes, which indicates outreach is working.
The Washington Food Industry Association, a nonprofit representing independent grocery and convenience stores, is working on its own plastic-bag study. Katie Beeson, government affairs director for the organization, said it is “still in the fact-finding phase on the impacts to our stores over the last several years.” But she expects to have the information available soon.
While most grocery stores and retail sellers made the change to reusable plastic bags, as well as charging the 8-cent fee per bag, not every store was on board. Between October 2021 and July 2024, the state took 669 enforcement actions. Of those, 160 were in Southwest Washington.
“The number of reports we receive, per capita, across the state is roughly the same. The largest amount comes from the northwest region, and the smallest amount is from the central region,” said Bowie of the state Department of Ecology.
While reports of noncompliance still come in, she said the numbers were — not surprisingly — highest during first few months of the ban.
As retailers have gotten on board, groups including Zero Waste Washington, a nonprofit that helped draft the bag-ban legislation, continue to educate shoppers about the bag ban. Executive Director Heather Trim said shoppers are starting to understand that the thicker, heavier bags aren’t meant to be used just once or twice, then thrown away or recycled.
“The bags hold a lot more per bag. I’ve gone to stores (prior to the ban) where I would get one thing in each bag,” she said.
She said studies have already been done in other states. In fact, a recently released study out of California found that bag bans are working but can be undermined by loopholes, such as per-bag fees that are too low to be a deterrent or providing paper bags for free.
“I hesitate to use the word ‘loophole’ … because the bill that passed was one of the best in the country at that time,” Trim said of Washington’s ban.
She said the bill “got the ball rolling,” and now legislators can continue to work on refining the law.
“We wanted a higher fee. The higher fee is the motivating factor,” Trim said, adding that shoppers tend to remember to bring their bags if the plastic bags are expensive.
She said Ireland’s bag ban, implemented in 2002, is a successful example of higher fees. The country began by charging the equivalent of 15 cents per single-use bag, which increased to 22 cents before banning the bags entirely. The minimum price for reusable bags is 70 cents.
Trim said California lawmakers are currently working on a complete plastic bag ban that could eventually serve as a model for Washington.
