Massachusetts Senate passes bill that bans or limits certain plastics among other measures

The Senate Thursday voted 38-2 to pass a Sen. Becca Rausch bill (S 2830) that represents the chamber’s latest attempt to ban plastic checkout bags and other plastic products statewide.

The plastics bill the Senate passed (with Fattman and fellow Republican Sen. Peter Durant casting the votes of dissent) would limit single-use food service plastics like straws, cups and cutlery from automatically being given to customers; create a statewide bulk plastic recycling program for larger plastic items like car seats; create a Plastics Environmental Protection Fund to help small businesses make the switch to eco-friendly products; require do-not-flush labeling for non-flushable wipes made of plastic; and implement statewide composting. In addition to banning plastic bags, stores would be required to charge 10 cents for recycled paper bags, with half of the proceeds going towards environmental protection.

“The plastics industry releases about four times more planet-warming emissions than the airline industry, every year. At the current pace, emissions from plastics are set to more than double by 2060,” Rausch said Thursday. She said Massachusetts residents throw out about 900,000 tons of plastic waste every year, including 2 billion plastic bags and 3.4 billion plastic bottles. Those products can then sit in a landfill for hundreds of years or are incinerated — both of which release microplastics into the ground and air, which end up in food and drinking water.

The bill now heads to the House of Representatives.

State House News Service contributed to this report.