State and local plastic bans are gradually changing how Americans shop, eat, and handle waste. Twelve states now ban single-use plastic bags, and seven have passed laws making producers responsible for packaging waste. Many cities have also banned polystyrene foam containers. While this movement is gaining ground, it still faces strong opposition.

Each American uses about 365 single-use plastic bags every year. With a population of 330 million, this adds up quickly. Only about 9% of all plastic ever made has been recycled. The rest ends up in landfills, waterways, or breaks down into microplastics found in human blood, tap water, and table salt.

As of early 2026, where does the U.S. stand on plastic restrictions? Which states and cities are leading, and what does the data show about the effectiveness of these bans? How does the U.S. compare to Europe and Asia? With less federal action on environmental protection, will states introduce more bans? Earth911 has mapped out the current situation to help you use evidence when urging your legislators to act locally.

Which States Have Plastic Bans?

Statewide Bag Bans

As of January 2026, twelve states have enacted statewide bans on single-use plastic bags: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii (though the state doesn’t have a single law; county-level ordinances cover the entire state), Maine, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington. Several U.S. territories, including American Samoa, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands, have also implemented bans.

Most states allow paper bags for a fee, typically between 5 and 12 cents. Washington’s updated 2026 regulations, for instance, resulted in a 12-cent fee to cover the collection of plastic film carryout bags and an 8-cent fee per recycled paper bag. California took the most aggressive step in 2026, with SB 1053, which eliminated all plastic checkout bags in the state, including the thicker “reusable” plastic bags that represented a significant loophole since the state’s original 2014 ban. CalRecycle data showed that the tonnage of plastic grocery bags disposed of by Californians had actually grown 47% between 2014 and 2022 under the old rules.

Roughly one-third of all Americans now live in a jurisdiction with some form of plastic bag policy, according to research published in June 2025 in the journal Science.

Beyond Bags: Foam, Straws, and Hotel Toiletries

The scope of plastic restrictions has expanded well beyond shopping bags. Polystyrene foam bans are spreading rapidly. Virginia’s expanded polystyrene container ban takes effect July 1, 2026,  covering all food vendors after an initial phase targeting chains with 20 or more locations. In January 2026, New York expanded its foam ban to include cold storage containers such as coolers and ice chests. Delaware, Rhode Island, and Oregon have also enacted foam foodware bans.

Several states, including New York, Illinois, and Washington, now prohibit large hotels from offering small plastic shampoo and lotion bottles, and California’s SB 2960 extended the prohibition to all hotels as of January 2026. Oregon’s SB 551, passed in May 2025, goes further, phasing out small plastic toiletry containers in hotels with 50 or more rooms by 2027 and barring food service establishments from automatically providing single-use utensils or condiments unless requested, beginning this July.

Perhaps the most consequential policy development is the rapid adoption of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) laws for packaging. Seven states have enacted packaging EPR legislation: Maine, in 2021, was the first, followed by Oregon in 2021, Colorado and California in 2022, Minnesota in 2024, and Maryland and Washington in 2025. These laws fundamentally shift who pays for packaging waste management—from municipalities and taxpayers to the producers who create the packaging.

Do Plastic Bans Work? What the Evidence Shows

The most rigorous evidence to date comes from a landmark study published in Science in June 2025 by researchers at the University of Delaware and Columbia University. After analyzing more than 600 bag policies and data from 45,067 shoreline cleanups between 2007 and 2023, the study reported that plastic bag bans and fees led to a 25% to 47% reduction in plastic bags as a share of items collected during shoreline cleanups, compared to areas without such policies.

Several key findings emerged from this research:

• The benefits grow over time. Reductions in plastic bag litter increased over time as a plastic ban remained active, with no evidence of rebound effects within 5 years.
• Fees may outperform bans. While fee-based policies appeared more effective at reducing shoreline litter than outright bans, the researchers noted that more study is needed.
• State-level policies are more effective than local laws. Statewide policies produced greater reductions than county or municipal ordinances.
• Partial bans are weakest. Bans that allowed thicker “reusable” plastic bags showed the smallest and least precise effects, because consumers frequently treated them as disposable anyway.
• Wildlife benefits are emerging. The study found evidence of a 30–37% reduction in entangled animals at cleanup sites in regions with effective policies.

Even in areas with bans, the overall share of plastic bags in shoreline litter continues to increase, just at a slower rate than in areas without plastic policies. Plastic pollution overall continues to worsen, and bag policies can only mitigate one piece of it.

The Opposition’s Tactics

Preemption: The Ban on Bans

The most significant structural barrier to plastic regulation in the U.S. are preemption laws, which prevents cities and counties from enacting plastic restrictions. According to Earth Day Network, 17 states have some form of restriction on local plastic bans, and 10 have passed full-preemptive laws. Florida, Texas, Ohio, Arizona, Idaho, Indiana, and Missouri are among the states where cities are legally barred from banning or taxing plastic bags.

These laws are frequently supported by plastic industry groups, including the American Progressive Bag Alliance and the American Legislative Exchange Council, which provides model preemption legislation to state lawmakers to make it easier to quell local initiatives. In a third of the country, local communities cannot act even when they want to.

How Does the U.S. Compare?

The contrast between U.S. and EU approaches is stark. The EU’s Single-Use Plastics Directive (SUPD), adopted in 2019 and enforced across all 27 member states since 2021, takes a unified, top-down approach to plastic regulation. It banned the sale of plastic cutlery, plates, straws, stirrers, balloon sticks, and expanded polystyrene food containers, items that the U.S. restricts only in select states or cities.

The SUPD goes further with binding quantitative targets, including a 77% separate collection rate for plastic bottles by 2025, increasing to 90% by 2029; mandatory 25% recycled content in PET bottles by 2025 and 30% for all plastic bottles by 2030; and requiring tethered caps on beverage containers. Member states have achieved an average collection rate of 60%, compared to 28.1% in the U.S., with countries like Germany exceeding 90% through deposit return programs. France also went beyond the directive’s requirements, requiring 30% recycled content in PET bottles as of 2024. Several member states—Belgium, France, Greece, Portugal, and Spain—have enacted even stricter rules than the directive requires.

The EU also adopted the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), which added bans on foam packing peanuts, airport luggage wrap, and multipack plastic rings. EPR schemes are mandatory across the EU, with producers covering the costs of collection, transport, treatment, and litter cleanup. Eurostat data shows that in 2023, the EU generated 35.3 kg of plastic packaging waste per capita, of which 14.8 kg (about 42%) was recycled.

The European Commission will conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the SUPD by July 2027 to assess its effectiveness and determine whether additional measures are needed.

Asia: Patchwork Regulation

Asian plastic regulations vary widely. The region accounts for nearly one-third of global GDP, is central to plastics supply chains, and has become a hotspot for plastic pollution. According to the OECD Regional Plastics Outlook, China, the world’s largest plastics producer, accounted for 32% of global production as of 2020. The nation has been tightening regulations since 2020, banning or restricting specific plastic products in phases. Non-degradable bags were banned in all Chinese cities and towns as of 2022, and restrictions on plastic packaging in the delivery and postal service became nationwide bans by the end of 2025, completing a phased rollout that began in major provinces in 2022.

As of February 2026, China implemented nine new national standards for recycled plastics, covering product evaluation, recyclable design, traceability, and component identification, establishing a comprehensive regulatory framework for waste generated at every step in the plastics lifecycle.

South Korea has mandated a minimum recycled PET content of 10% for clear beverage bottles as of January 2026. It will require 30% PCR use by 2030, aiming to have all plastic packaging made from bioplastics by 2050. Japan has taken a more voluntary approach, creating a certification system under the Plastic Resource Recycling Promotion Law that requires at least 15% recycled PET in bottles and packaging designed for recycling—certified products receive preferred status in government procurement.

China’s 2017 ban on plastic waste imports was a watershed moment globally, forcing developed countries that had long shipped their waste to China for processing to confront their own recycling shortcomings. The U.S., Japan, and European nations rapidly redirected waste exports to Southeast Asia, where imports initially surged before the rest of the region began implementing its own restrictions. The rising tide of waste in former exporting nations, including the U.S., is driving new investment in domestic recycling.

The Gap: Speed and Scope

By virtually every measure, the U.S. lags behind the EU on plastic regulation:

Strategy	United States	European Union
Federal/unified ban	None; state-level patchwork	SUPD bans across all 27 states since 2021
Items banned outright	Bags in 12 states; foam in ~6 states	Cutlery, plates, straws, stirrers, foam containers, balloon sticks, oxo-degradable plastics
Recycled content mandates	CA: 25% in bottles (2025); limited elsewhere	25% rPET in bottles (2025); 30% all bottles (2030)
Bottle collection targets	No federal target; 10 states have bottle bills	77% by 2025; 90% by 2029
EPR for packaging	7 states enacted; implementation beginning	Mandatory across all member states
Preemption laws blocking bans	17 states restrict local action	No equivalent barrier

 

The U.S. also generates substantially more plastic waste per capita. OECD data from 2019 found that U.S. per capita plastic waste generation is roughly double the EU average, and projections indicate the gap will widen through 2060 if there is no policy intervention. We enjoy a better waste management infrastructure than most Southeast Asian nations, but lag behind Japan, South Korea, and, increasingly, China in recycling mandates and recycled-content requirements. Where the U.S. is notably behind is in integrating circular economy principles into its laws: deposit return schemes, which are the basis for Europe’s high collection rates and are increasingly used in Asia, exist in only 10 U.S. states, with decades-old regulations.

The broader international context underscores both the urgency and the difficulty of the plastic pollution challenge. The UN’s Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee, which is developing a legally binding global plastics treaty, failed to reach an agreement at its most recent meeting in Geneva in August 2025. The talks were adjourned, and a future, unscheduled session will eventually happen. For now, the global framework is in limbo even as national and regional efforts accelerate.

What’s Next: Where Are We Heading?

Several trends are likely to shape the U.S. plastic regulation landscape in the near term:

EPR expansion will accelerate. With seven states enacted and several more in the pipeline, EPR is becoming the dominant policy framework for packaging waste. The outcome of the Oregon legal challenge could determine how quickly other states proceed. Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, and New Jersey all have pending EPR bills.

The bag ban count will grow. Pennsylvania, New Mexico, Virginia, and Hawaii all considered or introduced bag ban legislation in 2025. Oregon is expanding its existing ban on single-use plastic bags to include reusable plastic bags by 2027. Even in preemption states, political pressure is building.

Loophole closure will be a theme. California’s experience with thicker “reusable” bags demonstrated that poorly designed bans can be counterproductive. Expect other states to tighten existing laws, as Oregon is doing with SB 551 and Washington with its updated fee structures.

Recyclability labeling fights are coming. California’s SB 343, which restricts the use of the chasing arrows symbol to products that actually meet recyclability criteria, takes effect for products manufactured after October 2026. The FTC’s Green Guides are also due for a major update, which could set national standards for recycling claims.

PFAS restrictions will intersect with packaging policy. Maine’s ban on PFAS in specific food packaging takes effect May 2026, with a broader ban on PFAS in all products by 2030. These “forever chemical” restrictions add another layer of regulatory pressure on packaging producers.

Are We Making Progress?

The truth is that progress is happening, but it is not fast or consistent enough.

The U.S. remains hampered by a federal government in thrall to the fossil fuel industry. The continued success of preemption laws and the product-by-product approach to bans rather than addressing systemic plastic overproduction has hamstrung U.S. progress. The EU’s unified approach, with binding targets across all member states, produced faster, more consistent results. Asia’s largest economies are now implementing recycled-content mandates and comprehensive standards that, in many cases, exceed what most U.S. states require.

Meanwhile, global plastic production continues to rise, projected to increase 70% by 2040 without additional action, according to the OECD. The failure of the UN plastics treaty negotiations in August 2025 means there is no binding international framework to backstop national efforts.

We are moving in the right direction, but progress is too slow. You can help by reaching out to your legislator and asking for action.

The post The State of Plastic Bans in the United States appeared first on Earth911.