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Retailers may still provide single-use bags instore for shoppers to collect loose unpackaged goods prior to purchase, such as produce, deli, and bakery items. Restaurants and certain smaller retailers (those with less than 2% of retail sales from food and less than 10,000 square feet of retail area) are not required to collect a 5-cent fee per bag but must comply with the single-use plastic carry-out bag ban and provide only reusable or recycled paper bags. Grocery stores, box stores, and other large retail stores that provide carry-out bags must collect a 5-cent fee for each bag except for reusable bags not made of plastic, such as cloth bags with stitched handles, which may be given away at no cost.

Stores may provide recycled paper bags or reusable bags for their customers.

Shoppers are encouraged to bring their own reusable bags or totes for transporting their goods. The DEP encouraged businesses that provide single-use plastic carry-out bags to take advantage of the additional time provided by enforcement delays to procure alternatives and deplete current stocks of these products.Īs of July 1, 2021, retail establishments including stores, restaurants, and temporary or pop-up businesses such as farmers’ markets, food trucks, or fairs, are prohibited from providing single-use plastic carry-out bags. However, the ban’s enforcement was delayed twice, originally due to concerns regarding potential transmission of the COVID-19 virus, and again in December of 2020 due to concerns regarding a disruption in packing supplies and logistical effects caused by COVID-19 Pandemic. A ban on single-use plastic carry-out bags, which was passed by the Maine Legislature in 2019, was scheduled to go into effect on April 22, 2020. Statewide ban on single-use plastic bags goes into effect July 1, 2021ĪUGUSTA, June 17, 2021 - The Maine Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is reminding retail stores, restaurants, and shoppers that the statewide ban on single-use plastic carry-out bags will go into effect on July 1, 2021.
