NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- Carrying your groceries home in plastic bags will soon be a thing of the past in New York State: Lawmakers have agreed to impose a statewide ban on most types of single-use plastic bags from retails sales, the New York Times reported.
The ban is expected to be passed on Monday as part of the state's budget bills, and would go into effect next March.
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The ban would forbid retailers from providing customers with single-use plastic bags, which are nonbiodegradable.
There are some exceptions to the ban, however. Those include food takeout bags, bags used to wrap deli or meat counter products, bags for bulk items, newspaper bags and garment bags.
The ban also involves allowing counties to opt in to a 5-cent fee on paper bags, revenue that would then be used for the state’s Environmental Protection Fund as well as a separate fund to buy reusable bags for consumers.
The country's only other statewide ban is in California.