Business compliance with plastic bag ban upsets lawmakers

DOVER, Del. (AP) — Democratic legislators in Delaware are complaining that grocery stores and other retailers are exploiting a “loophole” in a law prohibiting the use of certain plastic bags when the businesses are actually doing exactly what the law requires.

A law that took effect this year prohibits store owners from providing thin “single-use” plastic bags at the checkout counter. Customers must now use paper bags or thicker, “reusable” plastic bags, or bring their own bags with them.

Lawmakers apparently didn’t foresee that many businesses would opt to provide the thicker bags explicitly allowed in the law rather than eliminating plastic bags completely.

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