Plastic bag ban passes Washington Senate again

Associated Press

OLYMPIA — The Washington Senate has once again approved a measure to ban single-use plastic bags.

The chamber voted 30-19 Wednesday to re-pass the measure it first passed during last year’s legislative session. The bill now heads to the House, where it stalled last year.

The bill would ban stores from giving out single-use plastic carryout bags and require an 8-cent charge for other bags handed out.

Beyond banning single-use plastic bags, the bill would require recycled paper bags to have at least 40 percent recycled material.

Some disposable plastic bags used inside stores would be exempt from the ban, including bags for fruits, vegetables, bulk foods, and meats, and loose bulk items like screws.

The Senate on Wednesday also passed a bill they first approved last year that would adopt California’s emission rules for vehicles in Washington.

Lawmakers voted 26-23 in favor of the measure, sending it to the state House.

Under the bill, the state would adopt a system where car manufacturers are assigned credits based on the kind and fuel efficiency of cars they bring into the state.

Those credits would then be used to set a quota for how many zero-emissions vehicles the company would be required to import into the state, and to have the quota automatically adjust based on whether the majority of the cars they imported were more-efficient small hybrids or larger, more gas-hungry vehicles.