Maybe you have been annoyed by the extra charge to get a plastic shopping bag, but a new study shows the policies actually help clean up shorelines.

That extra fee at the grocery store for a plastic shopping bag isn’t just an inconvenience –– it is actually making a difference for marine ecosystems, according to a new study.

Policies that ban or impose fees on plastic bags are associated with a 25% to 47% decrease in plastic bag litter in shoreline cleanups, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Science.

Policies that have banned or imposed fees on plastic bags are leading to significant declines in plastic litter along U.S. shorelines, a new study has found. These state- and local-level regulation… ...

Using crowdsourced data from shore cleanups, researchers found that areas that enacted plastic bag bans or fees had fewer bags littering their lakes, rivers and beaches than those without them.

Delaware House Bill 111, which would cut back on single-use food service items, will soon be discussed. Here's what to know.

Plastic bag bans and fees curb US shoreline litter, study suggests Shoreline litter data research shows policies caused a relative decrease in the percentage of plastic bags.

“In 2024 alone, our International Coastal Cleanup volunteers cleaned up over 500,000 grocery bags from the environment and 500,000 other plastic bags, totaling more than a million different plastic ...