Thank you to James Kences, York Town Historian, for conducting many hours of research to provide this data about Maine statewide efforts to curb single use plastic. Thank you to Rachel Smith for creating the graphics.

“Maine has an admirable record in promoting the restriction of single-use plastics, both at the community and state government levels. These local ordinances, similar to those enacted by the town of York, beginning in 2015, and again in 2024, represent an ever broadening awareness of the many harms a profusion of these materials have caused.  Until decisive actions are taken in Washington to impose limits, and given the character of contemporary politics, this seems unlikely, it is left to the cities and the towns to confront this problem directly, and each ordinance brought forth should be acknowledged as an accomplishment.   The existence of so-called preemption laws in more than half of the states of this country, that explicitly prevent local governments from engaging in these restrictive measures, points out clearly just how important any of these ordinances are, and that not surprisingly, the plastics industry is so strongly opposed to them.” -James Kences

 

Click HERE for a timeline of all single-use plastics bans in the State of Maine