PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • June 21, 2021
Starting next week, most Maine retailers will no longer be allowed to bag customers' purchases in plastic. Customers will either have to bring their own reusable bags, opt for paper bags for which they will pay a mandatory 5-cent fee or go without bags altogether. The ban on single-use plastic bags was adopted by lawmakers in 2019, designed to lighten the waste stream and cut down on the number of flimsy plastic bags stuck in trees and fluttering along roadsides in the state.