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Saturday, Oct. 14, is the first day that Pittsburgh businesses are supposed to stop distributing single-use plastic bags to ensure the city is operating in an environmentally conscious way. 

And while the ban does indeed go into effect that day, a city press release issued Oct. 5 announced that “local businesses may continue to use up their remaining stock of plastic bags without penalty through January 1, 2024, when strict enforcement of the legislation will begin.”

“We want to ensure that this ban is not a burden on our small businesses across the city, so it’s important to us that they have a grace period to get into compliance,” Tobias Raether, environmental enforcement manager, explained in the release. “Also, I want to be clear that the city is here to be a partner in this transition. Our enforcement efforts will be focused on warnings and providing businesses with the resources and support they need to get into compliance.”

The ban affects all retail businesses in the city including grocery stores, restaurants, department stores, convenience stores and farmers’ markets, which are prohibited from supplying single-use plastic bags and non-recycled paper bags to customers. This includes at checkout, pick-up or delivery. 

Patrons are encouraged to bring their own reusable bags, otherwise paper bags may be provided at a minimum of 10 cents per bag. 

Shoppers recently interviewed at Target in East Liberty had mixed views about the ban. One shopper expressed her disagreement with the regulation.

“It can be a little inconvenient sometimes because I just take the bus places, I walk around,” the woman says. “So I don’t carry a duffel bag to carry a bag full of bags with me.”

She also expressed her frustration with low-quality paper bags. “When you’re walking, that bag’s just gonna rip and drop a block away.”

Overall, she believes that the city should divert their environmentally conscious efforts to other areas.

“We should invest that energy into more accurate recycling here in Pittsburgh,” she says. “Cause a lot of it just gets dumped in the landfill anyway.”

Another Target shopper, who asked that her name not be used, supports the ban and regularly uses reusable bags on her grocery shopping excursions. 

“When I have plastic bags I reuse them in a small garbage can,” she says. “But it’s a new world we’re living in, so I’ll just have to find an alternative to that, which wouldn’t really affect me that much.” 

“I would say I’m in support of the plastic bag ban,” she says. “I think we need to really decrease our reliance on disposables and single-use plastic, so it’d be great to see more regulation around promoting reusables.” 

In the U.S. alone, approximately 100 billion single-use plastic bags are used annually, eventually clogging storm drains and microscopically invading our water supply. 

Pittsburgh Councilwoman Erika Strassburger proposed the plastic bag ban in 2021, which was later unanimously passed by the City of Pittsburgh in April 2022. It was supposed to take effect one year after the approval, but was postponed until Oct. 14, 2023  to give businesses and shoppers more time to prepare for the ban.

There are some exceptions to the paper bag fee. Businesses that accept vouchers or electronic benefits transfer (EBT) cards issued under the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) Program, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or other electronic benefits issued by the Department of Human Services, may not collect paper bag fees from anyone using a voucher or EBT card.

Learn more about exceptions and other aspects of the ban on the City of Pittsburgh website.