Single-Use Plastic Ban for Nantucket
What does the bylaw cover?
At a Special Town Meeting held on October 10, 2018, Town Meeting voted to adopt a bylaw banning certain single-use plastics from commercial sale or distribution, effective June 1, 2020. The bylaw was approved by the Attorney General and an internal Town Administration group is currently working on a public outreach campaign to educate the public and affected businesses as to the ban.
The bylaw prohibits the following single-use, petroleum-based plastic products from being commercially sold or distributed:
- Straws and drink stirrers
- Six-pack can and bottle flexible yokes
- Drinking cups and lids
- Non-compostable plates and eating utensils
- Drinking water in polyethylene terephthalate (PET or PETE) containers of 1 liter (34 ounces) or less. Note: most single-use plastic water bottles are made of PETE, identifiable by the plastic resin code
- Non-recyclable coffee pods
- Please note, biodegradable packaging is already required under Nantucket’s 1990 Biodegradable Packaging Bylaw(§ 125-2.1).