07/03/2015
As of Wednesday, grocery stores across the entire state of Hawaii are banned from distributing plastic bags.
The City and County of Honolulu -- which covers the entirety of Oahu, Hawaii's most populated island -- is now enforcing a ban that prohibits stores from handing plastic bags to customers at checkout, making Oahu the last populated island in the state to give the bags the boot.
Hawaii is the first state to fully ban plastic bags at grocery stores. California recently passed a law that requires stores to charge for reusable bags, but the measure has been put on hold until a referendum is held in November. Unlike the California ban, which was passed by the state legislature, Hawaii's ban was instituted at the county level.
Almost 90% of all material floating in the ocean is plastic, and every square mile of ocean contains 46,000 pieces of the stuff. These are scary statistics, especially because most of this pollution exists in international waters, so no one’s taking responsibility for it.
