Hawaii

A plastic bag ban in Hawaii has been applauded as a success story in an article on West Hawaii Today, which shared that the recently instituted plastic bag ban has reduced plastic bag usage, with 80% of shoppers now bringing their own bags. Reporter Nancy Cook Lauer writes that staff surveys were conducted in supermarkets across West and East Hawaii, and the results showed a greater acceptance of the bag ban than on Maui or Kauai. According to the article, reusable bag usage was at just 13% before the ban's implementation, displaying a huge increase. Writes Lauer:

In a move which is unprecedented in the state of Hawaii, healthcare provider Kaiser Permanente has decided to do away with plastic bags, eliminating the bags dispensed to patients on a voluntary basis. Instead, environmentally friendly and biodegradable bags will be available upon request. In an article from Hawaii's KITV News, the company announced its pride in being a part of a movement to stop unnecessary plastic usage. 

Despite the Hawaii-wide ban on plastic bags set to take effect in 2015, lawmakers are working on a temporary solution that they feel will save taxpayers and the environment from paying the price of plastic pollution. According to Mileka Lincoln of Hawaii News Now, lawmakers would like to introduce an intermediary bag tax in order to prevent the environment from suffering any further pollution. Lincoln writes:

House Bill 357 would require businesses to charge a dime for each single-use bag provided to customers at check-out.

In an article published on MSNBC today, contributor Miguel Llanos reports that [USA's] Hawaii has become the first state to completely ban plastic bags at store checkouts with legislation passed on Thursday. Llanos writes that this legislation makes Hawaii the only state in America in which every county within the state has instituted a ban. According to the article: