Summary:

 House Bill 483 (HB 483) prohibits enactment or enforcement of any law, ordinance, policy or rule that restricts the use of plastic bags by a grocery store. 

 

Legislation Overview:

 House Bill 483 (HB 483) creates a new section of law that prohibits enactment or enforcement of any law, ordinance, policy or rule that restricts the use of plastic bags by a grocery store.  It defines public body; local government; and plastic grocery bag. 

Current Law:

 The proponents of a single-use plastic bag ban point out that it would be one of the most effective ways to reduce the volume of waste in the ocean that spreads through the food chain; it can take up to 1000 years to decompose; and these bags are hard to recycle. In 2018, it is estimated that the US recycled less than nine (9%) of plastic material.
The opponents of bans on plastic bags stress that these bags are less expensive to manufacture; the plastic bag industry is the eighth largest industry in the US, employing nearly one million people nationwide; and plastic bags reduce risks of spills  and potential for bacterial contamination. 
The city of Santa Fe passed a prohibition on single-use plastic bags and required a fee for the use of paper bags at retail stores (Ord 2015-12). Santa Fe County followed suit in 2024 (Ord. 2024-06).  The county’s ordinance includes plastic bags, straws, plastic cup covers, and balloons. The city’s ordinance does not contain penalty provisions; the county’s penalties range from fifty dollars up to three hundred dollars or up to three days in jail.
Bernalillo County passed an ordinance to prohibit retailers from using single-use plastic bags and polystyrene containers in 2020. Las Cruces banned most single use plastic bags at checkout on 1 January 2022 with some exceptions and imposed a ten cent charge on each paper bag given to a consumer at a retail establishment.  Taos passed a similar ordinance in 2020 with a misdemeanor being the penalty for noncompliance. In 2023, Taos repealed some of the prohibitions in the 2020 ordinance including the banning of plastic straws because of ADA requirements according to the Taos city attorney. It dispenses with an outright ban on single use plastic bags but does require a fee from the consumer for their use. 
In 2020, statewide plastic bag laws became active in Maine, New York, Oregon and Vermont, with Connecticut and Delaware joining in 2021. This comes in response to California passing legislation to ban plastic bags in November of 2016. With Hawaii — which has a de facto ban due to all of the state’s counties imposing restrictions — added, that brings the total number of states with plastic bag banning laws to eight.
Across twenty-three states, over 200 counties and municipalities have their own bans in place. Additionally, the U.S. territories of American Samoa, Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands have enacted plastic bag bans.