Share:
House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
House of Representatives
Session of 2019 - 2020
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | August 28, 2019 04:05 PM |
|---|---|
| From: | Representative Brian Sims and Rep. Jared G. Solomon |
| To: | All House members |
| Subject: | Updated Legislation Regarding the Use of Plastic Bags |
| As you may know, plastic bags are non-biodegradable and take up to 1,000 years to decompose. They are one piece of the puzzle of daily conveniences that are damaging our environment and contributing to climate change, which is one of the greatest threats to not only the Commonwealth, but our world. Since Representative Solomon and I released our memo on January 28, 2019 about a similar bill, we’ve been working with advocates and industry stakeholders to adjust both the fee itself and how the fee proceeds would be distributed between businesses and environmental programs. Our goals are to reduce the use of single use plastic bags and lead the Commonwealth in a strengthened effort to protect our environment for generations to come. Our updated legislation will provide for a fee of fifteen cents on each non-reusable plastic bag used by purchasers of consumer goods at retail establishments. The fees collected will be shared with retailers via a three-tiered system based on their business size and small businesses will recoup 100% of the fee on these bags. The fees collected by the Commonwealth will fund the Hazardous Sites Cleanup Program to conduct cleanup actions at sites where hazardous substances have been released. We ask for your support of this legislation and in the effort to take another step forward in proactively protecting our environment and providing the resources to remediate environmental and health hazards. |