State & Territory Directory

Browse bag legislation and packaging EPR laws across the US.

• Alabama — No statewide ban and no enacted statewide preemption (auxiliary-container preemption bills introduced in recent sessions, including SB 199 of 2018, did not become law).
• Alaska — No statewide ban; many municipalities have plastic carryout bans.
• American Samoa — Territory-wide plastic bag ban at all retail stores, effective February 23, 2011, codified at A.S.C.A. § 25.2034. American Samoa was the first US state or territory to ban plastic shopping bags. Signed by Gov. Togiola Tulafono in 2010; exempts fully non-petroleum biodegradable and compostable bags; enforced by the American Samoa EPA.
• Arizona — No statewide ban; preempted (ARS 9-500.38 (2015) preempts local bag bans).
• Arkansas — No ban; local regulation of auxiliary containers (bags, cups, bottles, packaging) is preempted by Ark. Code Ann. § 14-16-121, enacted by Act 751 of 2021 (HB 1704).
• California — Statewide bag ban: active statewide ban. Covered-retailer scope is narrow under state law (Public Resources Code §42281 as amended by SB 1053): only 'stores' as defined — full-line self-service retail grocery stores with $2M+ gross annual sales selling a line of dry groceries, OR retail establishments of 10,000+ sq ft that contain a licensed pharmacy — plus convenience food stores, food marts, and entities engaged in the sale of a limited line of goods that includes milk, bread, soda, and snack foods. Standalone apparel, jewelry, and general retail are NOT covered by the state statute; local ordinances (e.g. City of Los Angeles LAMC Art 2.1 Ch XIX) extend the scope to apparel.
• Colorado — Statewide bag ban: active statewide ban. Statute explicitly lists 'clothing stores' as covered. Small business exemption: 3 or fewer Colorado locations. Apparel/general retail covered.
• Connecticut — Statewide bag ban: active statewide ban on single-use plastic checkout bags (plastic bags less than 4 mils thick, CGS 22a-246a). Reusable plastic bags of at least 4 mils and paper bags remain permitted. All retailers regardless of size. Apparel/general retail covered.
• Delaware — Statewide bag ban: active statewide ban. Covered-retailer scope is broad under state law (HB 130 of 2019 as expanded by HB 212 of 2021, codified at 7 Del. C. §6098): applies to all retail stores in Delaware, with restaurants and certain food-service uses excluded. The 2021 expansion removed the original 7,000+ sq ft / chain-of-3 threshold so the ban now reaches all retailers, including apparel, jewelry, and general merchandise (e.g. Claire's, Gap).
• District of Columbia — Statewide bag fee in effect; the District has not enacted a carryout-bag ban. DC Code §8-102.03 (Anacostia River Clean Up and Protection Act of 2009) requires establishments selling food or alcohol — grocery, convenience, and liquor stores, restaurants, drug stores, and any other retail selling food — to charge $0.05 per disposable paper or plastic carryout bag. Establishments with restaurant seating (including food courts and fast food) are exempt from the fee on paper bags only; the fee on disposable plastic bags still applies to them.
• Florida — No statewide ban; preempted by Fla. Stat. § 403.7033 (2008 Energy, Climate Change, and Economic Security Act), which bars local regulation of auxiliary containers, wrappings, or disposable plastic bags pending a state report to the Legislature.
• Georgia — No statewide bag ban and no enacted statewide preemption. Preemption bills (SB 139 of 2015, HB 545 / SB 375 of 2018) were introduced but never became law, so no operative statute exists to cite.
• Guam — Territory-wide single-use plastic carryout bag ban under Public Law 34-110 (Choose to Reuse: Mungna ma Ayek i Plastek Act), codified at 10 GCA ch. 54B, effective January 1, 2021. A transitional 10-cent fee on disposable bags applied before the ban date. Note: the law permits distribution of bags marked recyclable/biodegradable, a loophole that has drawn criticism; verify current enforcement posture.
• Hawaii — No statewide ban (active county-level rules (no state law)). No state law; all four counties have own ordinances. De facto statewide ban via county action.
• Idaho — No ban; local regulation of auxiliary containers is preempted by Idaho Code § 67-2340 (HB 372 of 2016).
• Illinois — No statewide ban (SB 1872 statewide ban pending — not yet enacted, would begin 1/1/2029). SB 1872 would ban single-use plastic carryout bags and add a $0.10 paper fee beginning 1/1/2029; the bill was re-referred to Senate Assignments 6/2/25 and remains pending.
• Indiana — No ban; local regulation of auxiliary containers is preempted by Ind. Code § 36-1-3-8.5 (HEA 1053 of 2016).
• Iowa — No ban; local regulation of container use is preempted by Iowa Code §§ 331.301(6)(c) (counties) and 364.3(3)(c) (cities), enacted by HF 295 of 2017.
• Kansas — No statewide bag ban and no enacted statewide preemption. Auxiliary-container preemption bills (HB 2446 in both the 2022 and 2023-24 sessions) were vetoed by Gov. Kelly and the vetoes were sustained, so no operative preemption statute exists.
• Kentucky — No ban or preemption.
• Louisiana — No ban; preemption (Act 134 of 2020, codified at La. R.S. 33:1419.13) prohibits local container regulation.
• Maine — Statewide bag ban: active statewide ban on single-use plastic carryout bags. Recycled paper bags and reusable bags — including reusable plastic bags at least 4 mils thick (38 M.R.S. §1611(1)(G)(3)) — remain permitted with a mandatory charge. Retail and grocery; small bags exempt. Apparel/general retail covered.
• Maryland — No statewide ban (active county-level rules (no state law)). No statewide bag ban. State-level packaging rule is EPR.
• Massachusetts — No statewide ban (statewide measure pending). No statewide ban yet. Roughly 163 of 351 MA municipalities have local bag bans (advocacy-group tally; no official state count is published).
• Michigan — No statewide ban; preempted by Public Act 389 of 2016, codified at MCL 445.591–445.593, which bars local ordinances regulating or taxing auxiliary containers, including bags.
• Minnesota — No statewide ban; preempted (Minn. Stat. §471.9998 (2017) — nullified Minneapolis's 2016 bag-ban ordinance before it took effect. Local fees on carryout bags are permitted but bans are not).
• Mississippi — No ban; local regulation of auxiliary containers is preempted by Miss. Code Ann. §§ 17-1-71 through 17-1-75, enacted by SB 2570 of 2018.
• Missouri — No ban; local regulation of auxiliary containers is preempted by Mo. Rev. Stat. § 260.283 (HB 722 of 2015).
• Montana — No statewide ban or preemption.
• Nebraska — No ban; local regulation of auxiliary containers is preempted by Neb. Rev. Stat. § 13-2023(2) (LB 1023 of 2022).
• Nevada — No ban or preemption; voluntary retailer programs.
• New Hampshire — No statewide ban or preemption.
• New Jersey — Statewide bag ban: active statewide ban. Covered-retailer scope is broad under state law (Get Past Plastic Act, P.L. 2020 c.117 / N.J.S.A. 13:1E-99.126): 'store' means a grocery store, convenience store, liquor store, restaurant, drug store, **or any other retail establishment** that provides single-use carryout bags to customers. Apparel, jewelry, and general retail (e.g. Claire's, Gap) are explicitly covered, and restaurants are covered. Paper bags are additionally banned in grocery stores larger than 2,500 sq ft (and in any grocery store that is part of a chain of 10+).
• New Mexico — No statewide ban; Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Las Cruces and Silver City have bag ordinances.
• New York — Statewide bag ban: active statewide ban. Statewide plastic ban (Bag Waste Reduction Act) - all retailers required to collect NYS sales tax. $0.05 paper fee only in opt-in counties. Apparel/general retail covered.
• North Carolina — No statewide bag ban and no statewide preemption of local bag ordinances, so North Carolina municipalities remain free to adopt their own bag rules. The 2009 Outer Banks plastic bag ban (Dare, Currituck, and Hyde Counties) was repealed in 2017 by SB 434.
• North Dakota — No ban; local regulation of auxiliary containers is preempted by N.D.C.C. § 23.1-08-06.1 (HB 1200 of 2019).
• Northern Mariana Islands — No territory-wide plastic bag law exists in the CNMI as of July 17, 2026. Verified against the CNMI Law Revision Commission public-law index (cnmilaw.org): all public laws of the 1st through 24th Legislatures were reviewed and none regulates plastic or single-use carryout bags. Ban bills were introduced but never enacted — SB 21-37 ('Single Use Act of 2019', Sen. Vinson Sablan) and SB 23-42 ('Single Use Act of 2023', Sen. Donald Manglona) both died without becoming law. Secondary trackers listing CNMI among territories with bag bans could not be substantiated by any primary source; the citations they trace to (PL 21-38, PL 20-25) are actually a casino-commission law and a vehicle-registration-fee law.
• Ohio — No statewide ban and no permanent preemption of local bag bans. HB 242 (2020) imposed only a temporary moratorium on local auxiliary-container regulation, which has expired; the permanent bar is limited to local taxes/fees on auxiliary containers (Ohio Rev. Code § 715.013(B); § 3767.32 defines auxiliary containers). Local bans are lawful — Cuyahoga County's bag ban has been enforced since 2022.
• Oklahoma — No ban; preemption (SB 1001, 2019; codified at 27A O.S. §2-11-504) prohibits local container regulation.
• Oregon — Statewide bag ban: active statewide ban. Covered-retailer scope is broad under state law (HB 2509 of 2019 / ORS 459A.690–.695): applies to any 'retail establishment' — defined as any store, restaurant, or other entity engaged in the retail sale of personal property to the public, plus restaurants and food-service establishments. Apparel, jewelry, and general retail (e.g. Claire's, Gap) are covered statewide. No size or chain-count exemption.
• Pennsylvania — No statewide ban (no statewide rule).
• Puerto Rico — Single-use plastic bag ban (Act 247-2015).
• Rhode Island — Statewide bag ban: active statewide ban. Covered-retailer scope is broad under state law (Plastic Waste Reduction Act, R.I. Gen. Laws §23-92-2): 'retail sales establishment' explicitly includes any restaurant, retail store, grocery store, supermarket, convenience store, dry cleaner, pharmacy, liquor store, **jewelry store, clothing store**, and any other place of business that sells goods directly to the consumer. Apparel and general retail (e.g. Claire's, Gap) are explicitly named in the statute. No size or chain-count exemption.
• South Carolina — No statewide ban; coastal cities (Folly Beach, Isle of Palms, Mt. Pleasant, Charleston) have bans; statewide preemption struck down.
• South Dakota — No statewide ban; local regulation of auxiliary containers is preempted by SDCL § 34A-6-92 (SB 54, signed Feb 27, 2020), which bars cities and counties from regulating bags, cups, packaging, bottles, and straws.
• Tennessee — No ban; local regulation of auxiliary containers is preempted by Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 7-51-2001 and 7-51-2002 (Public Chapter 470 of 2019, 111th GA).
• Texas — No statewide ban; preempted by Tex. Health & Safety Code § 361.0961, as construed by the Texas Supreme Court in City of Laredo v. Laredo Merchants Ass'n (2018) — local bag bans violate state law.
• U.S. Virgin Islands — Territory-wide plastic carryout bag ban signed into law in 2016 (Gov. Mapp), effective January 1, 2017, codified at 29 V.I.C. ch. 8, subch. II (§ 500t et seq.). USVI was the third US territory to ban plastic bags, after American Samoa and Puerto Rico.
• United States (Federal) — No federal bag ban or bag fee. Carryout-bag regulation remains a state, territory, and local matter; no federal statute preempts state bag laws.
• Utah — No statewide bag ban and no enacted statewide preemption. HB 320 (2019), which would have preempted local container regulation, failed to pass, and no Utah preemption statute exists. Local ordinances (e.g. Park City, Moab) remain in effect.
• Vermont — Statewide bag ban: active statewide ban. Covered-retailer scope is broad under state law (Act 69 of 2019 / 10 V.S.A. §6692): applies to any 'store' (defined as any retail establishment located in Vermont) and any food-service establishment. Apparel, jewelry, and general retail (e.g. Claire's, Gap) are covered statewide, in addition to grocery stores, pharmacies, convenience stores, and restaurants. No size or chain-count exemption for the retailer itself.
• Virginia — No statewide ban (local taxes authorized for grocery/convenience/drugstores only). Va. Code 58.1-1745 authorizes local 5-cent tax ONLY at grocery stores, convenience stores, and drugstores. VA Tax Bulletin 25-6 explicitly excludes clothing stores, restaurants, food banks, and farmers markets.
• Washington — Statewide bag ban: active statewide ban. All retail. Small bags <882 cubic inches exempt from fee but PCR + labeling still required. Reusable film plastic carryout bags must be at least 2.25 mil thick (minimum rises to 4 mil on 2028-01-01). Apparel/general retail covered.
• West Virginia — No ban or preemption.
• Wisconsin — No ban; local regulation of auxiliary containers is preempted by Wis. Stat. § 66.0419 (2015 Wisconsin Act 302).
• Wyoming — No ban or preemption.