SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) – A fee would be charged to customers who use carryout bags at Illinois stores if a recently proposed bill becomes law.
SB 3423 would create the Carryout Bag Fee Act, which adds a $0.10 charge for carryout bag usage. The bill says this charge would be active everywhere except municipalities with a population over 1,000,000 people.
The bill’s language defines a carryout bag as “a plastic, paper or compostable bag that is provided by a retail establishment at the checkout, cash register, point of sale, or other point of departure to a customer for the purpose of transporting goods out of the retail establishment”.
Of the 10 cents charged, 4 cents would go toward the Carryout Bag Fee Fund, 3 cents would go back to each store, while the final 3 cents would be evenly split between the Prairie Research Institute of the University of Illinois, the Solid Waste Management Fund and the Partners for Conservation Fund.
The bill would create an exception for the charge when carryout bags are used or purchased to carry items someone buys “under specified governmental food assistance programs”.
A first reading of the bill happened in the Illinois Senate on Feb. 14.
See the full text of the bill in a PDF document attached to this story.
