St. Louis cannot enforce a plastic bag ban or fee. Mo. Rev. Stat. § 260.283 bars every Missouri political subdivision from imposing any ban, fee, or tax on paper or plastic carryout bags. The statute, enacted in 2015 (HB 722), specifically blocked a St. Louis bag-ban proposal then under consideration.
Mo. Rev. Stat. § 260.283(2), enacted by HB 722 in 2015, provides: 'No political subdivision shall impose any ban, fee, or tax upon the use of either paper or plastic bags for packaging of any item or good purchased from a merchant, itinerant vendor, or peddler.' Subsection 1 defines the scope broadly. The preemption was enacted specifically in response to bag-ban proposals from St. Louis City, St. Louis County, Columbia, and University City. After § 260.283, all those proposals were tabled or withdrawn. University City briefly enacted a polystyrene foam ban in 2014, which the Legislature followed with a separate polystyrene preemption. St. Louis Refuse Division operates the Curbside Recycling program (which excludes plastic bags from blue carts), the Earth Day STL plastic-film collection events, and partners with the Missouri Recycling Association on the It All Goes Somewhere campaign. St. Louis's Sustainability Plan emphasizes voluntary diversion targets.
St. Louis cannot fine retailers or shoppers for bag distribution. Bag-related litter is prosecuted under St. Louis Code Chapter 11 (Solid Waste) and Mo. Rev. Stat. § 577.073 (criminal littering). Putting plastic bags in the curbside recycling cart is contamination, addressed through education and oops-tags rather than citations.
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