Connecticut's single-use plastic bag fee will return Wednesday

Connecticut’s fee for single-use plastic bags, suspended for three months due to the coronavirus, is scheduled to return to retailers Wednesday. The 10-cent bag fee first went into effect last August as an environmental protection measure and is expected to lead to a total ban on plastic bags by July 2021.

The state suspended the fee in late March due to health concerns raised by retail employees about customers bringing their own reusable bags into stores. From March 27 through June 30, customers could use a store’s plastic bags for free or bring their own reusable bags and bag their own items. Store employees were not required to bag items into customers’ reusable bags.

The state “strongly encourages” the use of reusable bags in order to reduce plastic waste. Reusable bags are not a significant source of infection for COVID-19, according to guidance from the state Department of Public Health.

Chains like Big Y Foods and Stop & Shop eliminated single-use plastic bags from their stores on an accelerated timeline and many customers switched over to reusable bags in order to avoid paying the fee.

https://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-news-plastic-bag-tax-returns-20200630-xyixfuxfhzdyzf2ieeqm6bncgq-story.html