Effective today, the nation’s first state-mandated ban on plastic shopping bags goes into effect on the Outer Banks. Even customers of small souvenir stores and bait-and-tackle shops will be prohibited from taking their goods home in plastic.
The ban builds on another law, passed last year, that made it illegal for large retailers on North Carolina’s barrier islands to use the bags. Customers of stores such as Walmart and Food Lion have been shopping on the Outer Banks without single-use plastic bags since September 2009.
Now all businesses in coastal Currituck, Dare and Hyde counties are subject to the provisions. Businesses on Roanoke Island are exempt.
The ban, proposed by state Senate leader Marc Basnight, aims to promote a new shopping culture on the Outer Banks, where the delicate coastal ecosystem is particularly vulnerable to excessive trash.
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