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Starting Jan. 1, 2026, it will be more expensive to buy a plastic film carryout bag at Washington restaurants and retailers. The Washington State Department of Ecology reminds consumers that a scheduled four-cent increase in the price for plastic film carryout bags at Washington restaurants and retailers means their minimum cost will be 12 cents per bag.
The increase from the current eight cents per bag is part of a 2020 law meant to encourage shoppers to bring their own carryout bags, Ecology said in a news release. The minimum charge for a paper carryout bag will remain at eight cents.
Washington’s single-use plastic bag ban was implemented in 2021 and prohibits thin, .5 mil disposable plastic bags. The law sets standards for thicker, 2.25 mil reusable plastic film bags and requires plastic and paper carryout bags contain a minimum 40% recycled content.
“Paper and plastic carryout bags impact the environmental at every stage of their production, transportation, and disposal,” said Peter Lyon, manager of Ecology’s Solid Waste Management Program. “Bringing your own bag is the easiest way to avoid the charge, reduce emissions, preserve resources and prevent bags from becoming litter.”
To avoid the additional cost of carryout bags, Ecology recommends people store reusable bags in their cars, backpacks, purses and other handy places where they can be easily retrieved when needed.
Resources designed to help businesses remind customers to bring their own bags are available on Ecology’s bag ban webpage, including printable “BYOB” signs and posters that can be hung in parking lots, on windows and at checkout counters.
When a customer chooses to purchase a bag from a grocery store, retailer or restaurant, the law requires a minimum charge of eight cents for paper bags or 12 cents for plastic bags. Businesses are allowed to charge more than the minimum fees to help recoup the higher costs of compliant paper and plastic bags. Bag fees are treated as taxable retail sales – the fee goes to the business. Customers using food benefits — such as WIC, TANF, SNAP or EBT — are not subject to bag fees. Food banks are also exempt from applying bag fees to paper or plastic bags.
Visit ecology.wa.gov/bag-ban for more information about the law’s requirements, frequently asked questions, and flyers and resources translated into 18 languages. Contact bagban@ecy.wa.gov with questions or requests for technical assistance.
I’m sure this will impact and make a huge difference – ha! What about ALL THE PLASTIC CONTAINERS AND BAGS our food and supplies are in? Cut up fruit, baked goods, deli items, laundry detergent, snacks, cleaning products, etc. You name it! And if you buy anything in a recycled bag or container then it’s TWICE the cost!
There has to be a better way. Need to look back about 100 years ago and learn.
Hmm? I think 100 years ago people used bags they brought with them. 1925: were there plastic bags? I’m thinking of pictures of the time. Refrigeration was rare. People would often shop daily. Perishable food was wrapped in paper by the grocer. Shoppers brought a bag or cart to carry their purchases. Mostly goods were biodegradable, without taking hundreds of years to do so. At any rate this is how I recall my grandparents getting by.
I always bring my own bag, but I have to say the motivation of this law has always seemed futile when so much of what goes into my grocery bag is packaged in plastic. When I do end up with a plastic grocery bag, I am more likely to reuse it, than i am the plastics my groceries are packaged in. It seems to me that the manufacturers should be the ones that the law should be working on to change thier ways.
Another way to get money out of of consumers
Michael Happy Turkey Day. no plastic wasn’t used in the 1920s.My grandma in the 1950s Brought her own bag hand made cloth bags. People used flour sacks too and you are right everything until eh about the mid sixties was bio-degradable. When Plastic hit big (Swedin) I think it was and then into those areas and then here in US. I did all of our grocery shopping as a young teen and forever after ha. No plastic for anything maybe some on meats and cheeses but basically they then had bags but they were still paper bags. I hate plastic as I have mentioned and I really those little tiny ones that you can’t get open with wet finger tips. I find wet produce ha. Now We use our paper bags from the grocery store to put our recycling in in the house. We wash that stuff unlike garbage. I agree 2 with Patty. So buy the paper reuse the paper we use them about 6 times before they go into the recycle bin. We take our own cloth bags to the store and buy new paper bags when we get low. cont.
That’s without wet fingers ha. I have always wondered what would happen if when we go to the grocery or other stores with merc hermetically sealed in hard plastic if we bought it and then stood outside of the store and unwrapped it and left the offensive and dangerous to kids and wildlife plastic bags or shells right there for the stores to clean up if maybe they might talk to their manufacturers. A good little business here would be making small sleeve bags for produce and old bio degradable clothing (cotton or linen or burlap) no Polyester ( i hate that too) ha. Anyway 🙂 and larger cloth bags for trips to the store. I suspect our large box stores get everything from China so I don’t know if negotiation is possible, but we can open them with the little blades they sell in hard plastic for the purpose of opening their products. Then we leave them on their curb. Just a thought. I’m not making Turkey today and we are having Tuna and a Chocolate Cream pie this evening. It’s been an off year here so Christmas I will cook. With my glass and steel and wooden and utensils ha That is why I’m here today on MEN. Gripping my plastic mouse. There nothing is better for drying lettuce then a flour sac.
So now that we don’t have pennies do we pay 10 cents or round up to 15 cents. And yes I still use cash