Increasingly, grocery stores and other retailers are voluntarily offering reusable bags. Housewares giant Ikea started charging for plastic bags at its outlets last year.
Environmental groups say the bags wind up in the city's storm water system and are eventually washed into the harbor and beyond, where they can threaten wildlife.
"Plastic bags in the waterways carry all sorts of bacteria," said Mary Sloan Roby, executive director of the Herring Run Watershed Association. "It's within our grasp to be the cleanest city on the East Coast."
Smaller grocers - defined as those with gross annual sales of less than $500,000 - would be exempt from the ban. An amendment approved by the committee would delay implementation to Jan. 1, 2010.
City Councilman Robert W. Curran, who took a job bagging groceries after high school, was the sole no vote on the committee yesterday. He said he will stand with the unions representing grocery workers, which have opposed the bill.
City Councilwoman Agnes Welch, meanwhile, voted for the bill in committee so it could be vetted by the full council, she said. But she said she may not support the measure when it comes before the full council.
john.fritze@baltsun.com
