A plastic bag ban or charge is a law that restricts the use of lightweight plastic bags at retail establishments. In the early 21st century, there has been a global trend towards the phase-out of lightweight plastic bags. Single-use plastic shopping bags, commonly made from low-density polyethylene plastic, have traditionally been given for free to customers by stores when purchasing goods: the bags have long been considered a convenient, cheap, and hygienic way of transporting items. Lightweight plastic carrier bags include all carrier bags with a wall thickness below 50 microns and are not biodegradable. Problems associated with plastic bags include use of non-renewable resources (such as crude oil, gas and coal), difficulties during disposal, and environmental impacts. Concurrently with the reduction in lightweight plastic bags, shops have introduced reusable shopping bags.
Various governments have banned the sale of lightweight bags, have taxed manufacturers for the production of lightweight bags, or charged the sale of lightweight plastic bags in stores, placing the tax burden on consumers. The Bangladesh government of Begum Khaleda Zia was the first to do so in 2002, imposing a total ban on lightweight plastic bags. Between 2010 and 2019, the number of public policies intended to phase out plastic carryout bags tripled. As of 2024, regulations have been introduced in 127 countries, with 27 countries implementing bans on the sale to consumers and 30 countries implementing charges on the sale to consumers.
Issues
Plastic bags cause many minor and major ecological and environmental issues. The most general issue with plastic bags is the amount of waste produced. Many plastic bags end up on streets and subsequently pollute major water sources, rivers, and streams.
Even when disposed of properly, they take many years to decompose and break down, generating large amounts of garbage over long periods of time. Improperly discarded bags have polluted waterways, clogged sewers and been found in oceans, affecting the ecosystem of marine creatures. Huge volumes of plastic waste end up in the oceans every year, causing threats to marine species and disruption to the marine food chain. Several microbial species colonize on plastic particles enhancing their harmfulness, and plastic particles driven by winds form garbage patches in various parts of the oceans. The UN estimates that there will be more plastics than fish in the oceans by 2050 unless countries comes up with urgent measures to promote efficient production, use and waste management of plastics throughout their life cycles.
Two primary kinds of direct damage to wildlife are entanglement and ingestion. Animals can become entangled and drown. Plastic bags are often ingested by animals that cannot distinguish them from food. As a result, they clog their intestines which results in death by starvation. Plastic bags can block drains, trap birds and kill livestock. The World Wide Fund for Nature has estimated that over 100,000 whales, seals, and turtles die every year as a result of eating or being trapped by plastic bags. In India, an estimated number of 20 cows die per day as a result of ingesting plastic bags and having their digestive systems clogged by the bags. It is also very common across Africa to have sewers and drain systems clogged by bags which cause severe cases of malaria due to the increased population of mosquitoes that live on the flooded sewers. The term "white pollution" has been coined in China to describe the local and global effects of discarded plastic bags upon the environment.
Lightweight plastic bags are also blown into trees and other plants and can be mistaken for food. Plastic bags break down by polymer degradation but not by biodegradation. As a result, any toxic additives they contain—including flame retardants, antimicrobials, and plasticizers—will be released into the environment. Many of those toxins directly affect the endocrine systems of organisms, which control almost every cell in the body. Research shows the average operating "lifespan" of a plastic bag to be approximately 20 years.
Plastic bags dumped in the Pacific Ocean can end up in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. 80% of the plastic waste comes from land; the rest comes from oil platforms and ships. This can be eaten by marine animals, and block their breathing passages and digestive systems. Plastic bags not only add to the Great Pacific garbage patch, they can be washed ashore around the world.
Methods The two most popular methods of phasing out lightweight plastic bags are charges and bans, but there are a number of methods which have been found effective.
Lightweight plastic charges Lightweight plastic charges include all taxes, levies, and fees placed on the sale of single use plastic bags to consumers. As of 2018, 30 countries charge consumers when they purchase lightweight carrier bags. The charge strategy has all the same results in plastic bag reduction as a plastic bag ban, with the additional benefit of creating a new revenue source. The plastic bag charge method also protects consumer choice, which the ban does not.
Lightweight plastic bans Lightweight plastic bans constitute strict bans on the sale and distribution of single use plastic bags to consumers by retailers. As of 2018, 27 countries had completely banned the sale of plastic lightweight carrier bags. The ban strategy, while being the most effective and direct approach to reduce consumption of single-use plastic bags, increases the consumption of non-banned bags, plastic carriers slightly thicker than the lightweight bags which are still disposed of by consumers. In this way, bans decrease lightweight bag consumption, but increase other plastic carrier consumption and pollution.
Taxing and regulating manufacturers Many countries have decided to tax manufacturers and distributors of lightweight plastic bags, instead of placing the responsibility upon consumers. As of 2018, 27 countries taxed the manufacturing and production of plastic bags while 63 countries placed mandates for extended producer responsibility for single-use plastic. Extended producer responsibility means that producers carry the burden of responsibility even after the consumer purchases their products, meaning on a practical level that producers are required to help pay and support programs that properly recycle these bags or that producers are encouraged to change the design of their bags. This is the only method of regulation that places the burden on producers, instead of consumers.
Recycling Recycling of plastic bags can be another method of phase-out. However, only 5% of plastic bags make it to recycling facilities. Even when bags are brought to recycling facilities, they often fly out of these bins or recycling trucks and end up as litter on the streets. Another issue with recycling is that different bags are made from different yet aesthetically similar types of plastics. Bags can be either made of bioplastics or biodegradable plastics, and if accidentally combined in a compost, the bioplastics could contaminate the biodegradable composting. These bags can also jam recycling equipment when mixed with other types of plastic, which can be costly to repair. For example, costs of repairs rounded out to be about $1 million per year in San Jose, California.
Impact
Across the world, plastic bag regulation has worked to decrease lightweight plastic bag usage rates, with usage rates after lightweight plastic charges best demonstrating this point.
According to a 2018 study in the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, a five-cent tax on disposable bags reduced disposable bag usage by 40 percentage points. According to a 2019 review of existing studies, levies and taxes led to a 66% reduction in usage in Denmark, between 74 and 90% in South Africa, Belgium, Hong Kong, Washington D.C., Santa Barbara, the UK, and around 50% in Botswana and China.
In Ireland, the introduction of a €0.15 levy on plastic bags in 2002 led to a 90% reduction in usage within weeks, with the policy receiving widespread public support. Similarly, Portugal's 2015 plastic bag tax resulted in significant decreases in consumption, as consumers adapted by using reusable bags. Between 2010 and 2014 after a city-wide ban, there was a 50% decrease in the presence of single-use plastic bag Seattle's residential waste, despite the city's population growing by 10%.
In Kenya, a 2017 ban on plastic bags received favorable support from approximately 67% of consumers, who reported increased use of reusable bags and perceived improvements in cleanliness and waste management. Conversely, in Sweden, the repeal of a tax on single-use plastic bags in 2024 raised concerns about potential increases in plastic consumption, despite the tax's prior success in reducing usage by 75% between 2020 and 2021.
A 2025 study published in the journal Science analysed data from more than 45,000 shoreline cleanup events across the United States and it found that plastic bag bans and fees are now associated with a 25-47% reduction in litter in comparison with areas that do not have these policies. The effects of this are strengthening over time. Full bans were more effective than partial bans because partial bans exempt thicker plastic bags.
Yet despite these reductions, the study found that plastic bag litter is continuing to increase in an overall sense because in both areas that have policies in place and those that do not. This indicates that policies slow the growth down of the problem but does not reverse it.
They persist for long periods of time and are a risk to wildlife as they can be accidentally ingested or entangled within.
California's 2014 ban on thin plastic bags exempted thicker plastic bags that were classified as reusable and could be sold at checkout for at least 10 cents. Plastic bag waste subsequently increased from 157,385 tons in 2014 to 231,072 tons in 2021. In 2024, the state enacted SB 1053, which eliminated plastic film bags from checkout beginning January 1, 2026.
While plastic bag regulations can lead to substantial reductions in usage, the overall environmental impact depends on policy design, enforcement, and consumer behavior.
Criticism Plastic bag bans can lead to larger black markets in plastic bags. Studies show that plastic bag bans can shift people away from using thin plastic bags, but it can also increase the use of unregulated single use paper bags or unregulated thicker plastic bags in areas where these are provided for free. Further, the bans can drive significant increases in sales of trash bags because people could no longer reuse their old grocery bags for things like lining small trash cans.
The thicker reusable bags that are intended to replace single-use bags are recyclable. However, they require a specific recycling process, which requires that they be disposed of separately from other household recyclable materials. An estimated 6% of plastic bags are recycled. This can lead to an overall increase in plastic waste from plastic bags.
The production of some non-plastic bags (e.g. paper, cotton, using virgin plastic such as plastic having thickness of 50 micron) can produce more greenhouse gas emissions than plastic bags, which means that greenhouse gas emissions may increase on net following plastic bag bans. Alternatives to plastic bags would need to be reused over a hundred times to make them more environmentally friendly than plastic bags. They are also viewed as less sanitary than plastic because they can bring germs from outside the store to high contact volume surfaces like carts and check out stands.
Consumer reception