A 2020 law banning plastic bags in Vermont has nearly eliminated their use in the state

Vermonters have almost entirely given up the plastic bag.

University of Vermont researchers analyzed a 2023 survey of 745 Vermonters that showed plastic bag use dropped by 91% following a 2020 law banning businesses from offering plastic bags to customers, with paper bags available for a 10 cent fee.

Life Sciences professor Quingbin Wang is the lead author of a new peer-reviewed paper in the journal Environmental Economics that found the law’s strongest effect by far was the near complete elimination of plastic bags.

Paper bag use increased by 6% over the same period, which is not a statistically significant change. The UVM researchers surmised that having the option to substitute paper for plastic overrode any resistance to paying the small fee.

The study also found that about 70% of respondents viewed the legislation positively, according to Wang.

The ‘bottom-up’ origins of the plastic bag ban explain its success

There were those responding to the survey who refused to pay the 10 cents for a paper bag, opting for reusable bags. Some respondents had already switched to reusable bags before the ban went into effect.

Wang attributed the ban’s success in part to what he called the law’s “bottom-up” origins. Vermonters pushed legislators for the ban because of environmental concerns surrounding plastic, which is now found discarded everywhere on earth, including in the ocean, often in the form of microscopically small pieces that get into people’s bodies.

The simplicity of the law also contributed to its success, according to Wang.

“I feel like the biggest finding here is that this legislation clearly had an impact on consumer plastic bag use and, equally importantly, that there was broad and wide public support for the plastic bag ban − and the public is generally satisfied with its implementation,” UVM Gund Fellow Meredith Niles, coauthor of the study, said in a news release. “I think it demonstrates a great policy outcome, and that doesn’t always happen.”

Contact Dan D’Ambrosio at 660-1841 or ddambrosi@gannett.com. Follow him on X @DanDambrosioVT.