Maine had set Earth Day 2020 as the kickoff date for its plastic bag ban. But after the pandemic hit, the state gave struggling businesses until this July to comply.
Now, with momentum already faltering, some lawmakers want to scrap the ban.
They seized on the delay to write three pieces of legislation that would kill the ban altogether. While the Environment and Natural Resources Committee voted to keep the ban in place, the issue will still go to the full legislature, fanning the flames of the repeal effort.
Maine Rep. Jeffrey Hanley, a Republican who opposes the bag ban, said the governor’s decision to delay implementation provided an example for opponents to build on.
“People who sponsored these bills realized that it had been curtailed for a year so let’s continue with it,” he said in a phone interview from his home in Pittston, Maine. He noted the “ban the bag” effort had been “going on for eight years” before it finally passed, and opinion is still split among lawmakers and constituents in the state.