In recent years, plastic carryout bags have been the No. 1 thing that has been used for consumers to take items home from stores. However, this will no longer be the case in Delaware. House Bill 130 implementing the single-use plastic carryout bag ban was sponsored by 12 legislators, led by Rep. Gerald Brady (D-Wilmington) and Sen. Trey Paradee (D-Dover), and was passed in 2019 and signed by Gov. John Carney. Starting last week, the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control is urging customers to bring reusable bags to stores instead and to clean/disinfect those bags between uses.
Retailers can choose to offer paper bags, cloth bags or a thicker type of plastic bag that is designed to be reusable. The law allows retail stores to charge a fee for the bags they provide at point of sale. DNREC advises consumers to wash or disinfect their reusable bags by turning them inside out and wiping them down with a disinfecting agent after each use.
Under the law, plastic carryout bags will no longer be available from larger stores (more than 7,000 square feet) as well as smaller stores with at least three locations in Delaware of 3,000 square feet each or more. Supermarkets and big-box stores are affected, as well as chains of convenience stores. Restaurants are not subject to the ban, nor are small stores with one or two locations.