The town has a mandate from the people and we are going to follow that mandate.”

Michael Leverett, Clements’ Marketplace

PORTSMOUTH — Got your reusable bags ready?

Portsmouth’s ban on the use of most single-use plastic bags goes into effect on Saturday, Sept. 1.

“Starting Saturday, there will be no more plastic bags at Clements’, Rite Aid, CVS. You’ll either get a paper bag, or bring a reusable,” Town Council President Keith Hamilton said Monday.

Under the ordinance passed by the council last February, no business can provide any plastic carryout bag at the point of sale. All businesses providing plastic barrier bags or double-opening bags need to offer onsite recycling.

There are some exemptions, such as laundry dry-cleaning bags, prescription drug bags and bags for small hardware items.

First-time offenders would be given warning letters, while a second offense would merit a $150 fine. For a third or subsequent offense, a fine of $300 would be assessed, with the violation heard and adjudicated in Municipal Court.

Under the enforcement section of the ordinance, the business establishment itself and not an individual, such as a cashier, would be targeted for a violation.

On Monday, Michael Leverett, store manager at Clements’ Marketplace, said the business is ready and waiting for the new law to take effect.

“The law’s the law,” Mr. Leverett said. “The town has a mandate from the people and we are going to follow that mandate.”

He said the store is practically free of single-use bags already.

“We’re pretty much already done with plastic bags. We have only the small-mil produce bags, but that’s it,” Mr. Leverett said.

Despite the ban on single-use bags, the store will still have its ReStore recycling receptacle just inside the store for customers to deposit old plastic bags. State law requires the receptacles for all retail establishments occupying more than 10,000 square feet of retail or wholesale space, or conveying more than $8 million in goods in Rhode Island.

Mr. Leverett said at one point the store had run into an issue because a previous distributor who had been taking away the recycled bags stopped doing so, stating there was “no longer any reason” to collect the bags. However, the store has since found another company to haul away the used bags.

“We actually found somebody that we already deal with, a vendor who collects our cardboard, and they’re doing our plastic bags as well,” he said.

The loss of the original vendor, however, is indicative of larger problems within the recycling industry, he said.

“Recycling in general is going through some difficulties. No town has any solution for the collection of plastic bags,” said Mr. Leverett, pointing to China’s recent ban on accepting plastic waste from the United States and other countries.

Joined Newport, Middletown 

The council vote for the new ordinance in February came after a push by the nonprofit environmental group Clean Ocean Access (COA) to get all three Aquidneck Island towns to regulate the bags. 

The group first asked the council to draft an ordinance in August 2016 and renewed its plea last summer after Newport and Middletown had voted to implement a ban on single-use plastic bags starting Nov. 1, 2017.

According to Dave McLaughlin, COA’s executive director, the bags are environmentally unsound and particularly dangerous to marine life. The plastic breaks down into tiny pieces, are mistakenly ingested by fish and become part of the human food chain, advocates for the ban say.

More than 20 people spoke out in favor of the ban during the February public hearing, and two officials from municipalities that have already enacted similar ordinances said town officials shouldn’t fear any backlash from residents, or a drop in profits for local businesses.

Kate Weymouth, vice president of the Barrington Town Council, said her town enacted a plastic bag ban in January 2013, “without incident and with no complaints” from businesses or residents.

There might be some “grumbling” at first, she said, but people get used to reusable bags quickly, Ms. Weymouth said.