City of Salisbury amends Plastic Bag Ban

SALISBURY, Md. – The City of Salisbury has amended its Plastic Bag Ban.

The amendment excludes some purchases from the mandatory 10 cent fee charged for each alternative bag, such as a paper bag, given at checkout.

“We’ve listened to our local businesses — some of which already provided paper bags to customers at no cost — which were affected by the all-inclusive nature of the ordinance language. The Mayor’s Office and City Council have worked together to alleviate the requirement that some businesses charge for paper bags,” the City said in a statement.

The amendment now states that an establishment should not charge for any paper bag that:

• A food service facility gives a customer or third party delivery service to take food sliced or prepared to order from the food service facility
• A pharmacy gives to a patient or customer that contains a prescription drug
• Constitutes an essential part of the packaging of the product, the product itself, or which was packaged in such manner at the time of manufacture