1. To reduce the amount of environmental pollution by a particularly pernicious form of litter – the single-use plastic bag – and to reduce the amount of raw material and energy consumed in the manufacture and disposal of single-use plastic and craft paper bags for retail shopping;

2. To reduce plastic bag contamination of yard debris, household compost, waste paper recycling and other waste recovery streams and thereby reduce the damage to sorting and processing machinery that impedes resource recovery and recycling;

3. To reduce the significant amounts of raw material and energy used in the manufacture, waste collection, and disposal of single-use plastic and paper craft bags that people obtain from retail establishments for day-to-day retail shopping; and

4. To encourage the use of reusable bags by consumers for all day-to-day retail shopping.