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.
Cambridge is located across the Charles River from Boston. Its home to Harvard University and MIT.
Copyright AP - Associated Press
