Retail Single Use Bag Initiative

On May 22, 2023, the Evanston City Council adopted 1-O-23: An Ordinance Amending the City Code and Creating Section 3-2-22 "Retail Single Use Bag Tax". The Ordinance is a derivative of the City of Evanston Climate Action and Resilience Plan (CARP), which aims to eliminate petroleum-based, single-use products by phasing out the use of single-use plastics by 2025. The implementation of this action draws Evanston closer to its environmental goals by encouraging source reduction and minimizing the direct impacts of pollution, water use, litter and greenhouse gas emissions. 

The Ordinance requires Evanston retail stores (non-restaurant) exceeding 10,000 square feet or more to charge their customers 10 cents for each single-use, point-of-sale bag provided. Half of the fee (5 cents per bag) will be retained by retailers. The other half of the fee (5 cents) will be remitted to the City's Solid Waste Fund for education and for enforcement by the Health and Human Services Department. 

The remittance forms that must be provided to the City by each qualifying retail establishment can be found here: Retail Single Use Bag Tax Form. On or before the 20th of each month, each qualifying retail establishment must remit the full amount of the fee collected for all single-use, point-of-sale bags provided to the customers during the previous month to the City. 

Exceptions to the Code

The Ordinance does not apply to the following types of bags:

• Bags provided by a pharmacist that contains a prescription drug
• Newspaper bags
• Bags provided by restaurants for prepared carry out or leftover food or drinks
• Bags that are used to carry items purchased pursuant to the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP), the Illinois LINK card, or a similar governmental food assistance program. 

All paper single-use, point-of-sale bags in all retail establishments must be recyclable and made of at least 40 percent post-consumer recycled content. 

Effective Date

The ban on plastic, single-use, point-of-sale bags and non-compostable, pre-checkout bags in all qualifying retail establishments begins August 1, 2023.  Violations of this Ordinance will attract fines. 

If you have questions regarding this Ordinance, please call 3-1-1 or email health@cityofevanston.org.