Pittsburgh Ban On Single-Use Plastic Bags Just Days Away

PITTSBURGH, PA — This won't just impact city residents but also anyone who shops within its borders, so listen up: Beginning Oct. 14, all retail establishments in the city will be banned from providing single-use plastic or non-recycled paper bags to customers at checkout or through delivery.

The city approved the plastic bag prohibition in April 2022 but did not immediately put it into effect. Under the new legislation:

• Retailers will be able to provide a consumer with a recycled paper bag for a fee of no less than 10 cents; the retailer will fully recoup the fee.
• Shoppers who use cards or vouchers from either the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program or an EBT transfer card issued by the Department of Health and Human Services will be exempted from the 10-cent fee.
• Limited types of plastic bags will still be available for individual purchase or under certain exceptions. These exemptions include:
  • Any bag used inside a retail establishment by a customer to deliver perishable items to the point-of-sale, such as:
    • Bags used to package bulk fruit, vegetables, nuts, grains, or candy.
    • Bags used to contain or wrap meats or fish.
    • Bags used to contain unwrapped prepared foods, bakery goods, flowers, newspapers, dry cleaning, or similar items.
    • Bags used to package medications distributed through a pharmacy.
  • Bags sold in packaging containing multiple bags packaged together during manufacturing, such as:
    • Food storage bags (e.g. Ziploc).
    • Garbage bags.
    • Pet waste bags.

“By enacting this ban on single-use plastic bags, we can reduce the amount of microplastics inour soil and water, decrease our city’s reliance on fossil fuels and improve our recycling processes," Mayor Ed Gainey said in a statement Thursday.

Local businesses can continue to exhaust their remaining plastic bad stock until January, when city officials say strict enforcement of the ban will begin.