In September the Moab City Council voted to ban single-use plastic bags, citing littering, impacts on wildlife and water quality as the reason.
Moab is the second city in Utah to ban single-use plastic bags; Park City passed a bag ordinance in 2017,
The Utah Legislature is hostile to banning plastic bags. In the 2018 General Session, legislators considered a bill specifically written to undo Park City’s plastic bag ban. The bill (which failed to pass) would have prohibited local governments from regulating “auxiliary containers.” In the same legislative session, State Senator Jani Iwamoto (D-Salt Lake City) proposed a state law to charge a fee as an incentive to use fewer single-use plastic bags. Her bill also went nowhere.
Plastic bags are a nuisance in the environment because they don’t biodegrade. Rather they photodegrade, breaking into smaller and smaller bits that animals mistake for food and that contaminate soil and water with chemicals as they break down.
Plastic bags cannot go into blue recycle bins with other plastic because they jam recycling equipment. Smith’s and Harmons stores currently accept plastic grocery bags for recycling.
In August, Smith’s Food & Drug announced a plan to phase out plastic bags by 2025.
SLC Green: Info on What to Do with Your Plastic Bags here.