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Bags Legal to Use in Plastic Bag Bans

Bags that are legal to use in most states


While bag bans vary by state and even municipality, following are the most common regulations.

There are exceptions depending on where you do business. This guideline is not to be substituted nor meant to be a substitute for your local or state ordinances. Always consult with your local and/or state authorities.

Reusable Bags

  • Designed for at least 125 lifetime uses.  
  • Capable of carrying 22 lbs
  • Minimum volume of 15 liters
  • Minimum 2.25 mil thickness if plastic
  • Does not contain heavy metals or toxins

The base intention of these bans is to reduce the consumption of thin single use plastic bags at most retail businesses. Certain types of thin plastic bags for food are not banned in most areas. Nashville Wraps along with our suppliers and others believe that a better solution is recycling. Plastic bags take very little energy to recycle and have an unlimited life being recreated over and over again ( Video: How plastic bags are recycled). Note: Heavy metal content in USA made bags, or imported bags sold by Nashville Wraps conform to federal guidelines.

How to determine the capacity of a bag in liters

From our description of the bag's size take the (width x height x depth) in inches and divide by 61.024; if the answer is 15 or more the bag will qualify for the volume requirement. For instance a Vogue size plastic shopping bag is 16x6x12 (1,153 cu in) and is 18.88 liters.

Find acceptable bags here:  Christmas Bags  Plastic Shopping Bags  Reusable Shopping Bags

Paper Bags

  • Contains no old growth fiber
  • 100% recyclable – displays the word "recyclable" on the bag
  • Contains minimum 40% post consumer recycled material
  • Manufacturer's name and location printed on the bag

No paper bags from Nashville Wraps contain old growth fiber so we have not pointed that out on any of our product information. Many of our Green Way branded paper bags contain more than 40% of post consumer recycled material and this is pointed out in product attributes both online and in our catalog.

Find acceptable bags here:  Paper Shopping Bags - Kraft Bags Wholesale   Christmas Bags