Plastic shopping bags now banned in Cambridge

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — Plastic shopping bags are being banned in the Massachusetts city of Cambridge.

A city ordinance that bans the bags officially takes effect Thursday. The local law also requires businesses to charge at least 10 cents for a paper bag.

Any store that fails to follow the new ordinance faces a $300 fine.

The effort is meant to encourage use of more environmentally-friendly re-usable bags at groceries and other shops.

Similar bans are in place in communities in California and elsewhere. Efforts to ban the bags statewide in Massachusetts, though, have been unsuccessful.