Radnor added its weight to a statewide movement to ban single-use plastic bags, writes Holly Herman for Patch.

Commissioners voted 5 to 1 Monday night to ban single-use plastic bags, starting in six months.

 Radnor follows Haverford and Media, which initiated their own bans. It is the 10^th municipality in the state to implement the ban and the fourth largest municipality in Pennsylvania to prohibit single-use plastic bags.

Radnor officials said Wawa, Giant, Lancaster County Farmers Market, and the Wayne Business Association had been notified of the ban.

Exempt from the ordinance are laundry, dry cleaning, and newspaper bags, as well as non-profit food pantries.

A violation will carry a $50 fine for the first offense, a $100 fine for the second, and a $200 fine for the third.

PennEnvironment estimated that Radnor uses over 12 million single-use plastic bags annually, equal to 66 tons of plastic.

“Radnor’s new ordinance is a big step forward in the effort to cut unnecessary and dangerous single-use plastics out of our lives,” said Faran Savitz, a member of Penn Environment’s Zero Waste, a nonprofit promoting a clean environment.

Read more at Patch about Radnor’s decision to implement a ban on plastic non-recyclable shopping bags.

Team Seas offers a view on why plastic bag bans can backfire.