Do plastic bag bans and fees work? A new study says policies curb litter – by a lot
CBSN
State and local policies to regulate the use of plastic bags have significantly reduced how many of them are found littered along U.S. shorelines — potentially cutting that type of waste in half in certain places, a new study published Thursday in the journal Science found.
More than 600 bag policies, along with records from more than 45,000 shoreline cleanups between 2017 and 2023, were reviewed by researchers to see whether implementing bans or fees on plastic bags led to fewer discarded bags found near coastlines, rivers and lakes – and if they did, to what extent.
Co-authors environmental economist Anna Papp and Kimberly Oremus, a marine science and policy professor at the University of Delaware, found that the number of plastic bags collected as shoreline litter in places with bag policies dropped by at least 25%, and up to 47% over six years than in locations that did not have regulations.
