Everett, MA Single-Use Items: Plastic Bag Rules (2026)

The Everett City Council adopted the ban as Section 12-2007, Prohibition of Disposable Plastic Shopping Bags, in Chapter 12 of the Revised Ordinances (added 12-13-2021 by Ord. No. C0365-21 and amended 10-11-2022 by Ord. No. C0414-22). Subsection (b) is the operative rule: no retail establishment shall provide a disposable plastic shopping bag to any customer for the purpose of enabling the customer to carry away goods from the point of sale. A store can still make reusable bags available for sale and can use recyclable paper bags at checkout.

The definition of retail establishment is wide: any commercial enterprise, whether for profit or not, including, but not limited to, restaurants, pharmacies, convenience and grocery stores, liquor stores, seasonal and temporary businesses, jewelry stores and household goods stores. A disposable plastic shopping bag is any checkout bag made predominately of plastic, and the term includes degradable plastic bags, biodegradable plastic bags that are not commercially compostable, and commercially compostable plastic bags.

Several bags fall outside the ban. Checkout bags do not include bags in which the consumer places loose produce or bulk products, laundry or dry cleaner bags, newspaper bags, or bags used to contain or wrap frozen foods, meat or fish. Produce and product bags, meaning bags without handles used exclusively to carry produce, meats or other food items, are also excluded.

The replacement bags have printed standards. A recyclable paper bag must be 100% recyclable, contain at least 40% post-consumer recycled content, and display the words "Recyclable" and "made from 40% post-consumer recyclable content" on the outside. A reusable bag must have a minimum lifetime capability of 125 or more uses carrying 22 or more pounds, be machine washable or made of material that can be cleaned or disinfected 125 times, and have a thickness of greater than four mil.