Kodiak bans plastic shopping bags

Mitch Borden/KMXT

At its regular meeting on Thursday (1/26), the Kodiak city council voted to ban the distribution of single-use disposable plastic shopping bags by retailers within the city limits. This ban will not embargo the use of all plastic bags, but the kind given out at grocery stores that are less than 4 millimeters thick.

The council did amend the ordinance so the ban will go into effect on April 22nd, but if retailers have a supply of bags left before the deadline they can still give them out until October 31st, 2018. The amendment is meant to give stores time to use up their plastic bag inventories.

The council voted unanimously to pass single-use disposable plastic shopping bag ban.