MA Coronavirus: Grocery Stores Want Plastic Bag Ban Ended

BOSTON, MA — The Massachusetts Food Administration asked Gov. Charlie Baker Friday to lift local bans on single-use plastic bags as a way of protecting grocery store workers from the new coronavirus.

Scores of Massachusetts communities have passed bans on plastic shopping bags in an effort to limit environmental impacts. But some studies have shown that viruses like coronavirus can survive in the reusable, cloth shopping bags for as long as nine days.

The studies have not specifically explored COVID-19 and reusable shopping bags. The virus was first reported in China in December and researchers are still trying to determine how it is transmitted and how contagious it is.

In Massachusetts, most communities have banned the use of plastic shopping bags and have incentivized shoppers to bring their own, reusable bags by allowing stores to charge a fee for paper shopping bags.