MINNEAPOLIS - Single-use plastic bags will soon no longer be provided at local Minneapolis retail stores.

The Minneapolis City Council voted 10-3 to regulate the use of plastic bags, with a proposal that will go into effect June 1, 2017.

Under the proposal, businesses can distribute paper, compostable or reusable bags, which will come at a 5-cent charge, per bag, but may not provide plastic carryout bags.

Customers who receive food assistance are exempt from the 5-cent fee and with the passage of an amendment to the original proposal, retailers may opt to pay a 5-cent fee per bag to a litter cleanup nonprofit organization, instead of charging the fee to customers.

City councilman Cam Gordon, who proposed the "Bring Your Own Bag" ordinance with councilmember Abdi Warsame, said the initiative is to give customers incentives to bring reusable bags and ultimately reduce waste, litter and other negative impacts on the environment.

Minneapolis City Council

The proposal does include a few exemptions, including plastic bags used for produce, bags sold in multiple packages for use as garbage, yard waste or pet waste, newspaper bags, dry cleaning bags, bags to protect fine art paper, takeout food bags and more.

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"My constituents were very interested in it," Gordon said previously. "We kept getting calls and emails and every time another city passed a similar ordinance, people were wondering why isn’t Minneapolis doing this?"

Since Minneapolis' recycling program does not accept plastic bags, most end up in landfills.

"We also get a lot of calls and concerns about litter so a lot of these plastic bags end up blowing in our streets, getting caught in our trees, going in our creeks, rivers or lakes," said Gordon. "If nobody picks it up, it stays there pretty much forever."

But not everyone was on board with the latest push to make Minneapolis more waste-free.

Blong Lee is the owner of Kyle's Market, located in the East Harriet neighborhood. Before the vote took place, he said he was against the measure.

"I don’t think it would be fair for the customer," said Lee, referring to the 5-cent charge for paper bags.

The American Progressive Bag Alliance, an organization that works to create plastic bags for companies, released a statement following Friday's decision.

"By approving this bill, the Minneapolis City Council put politics above smart policymaking. This law will not only be ineffective in helping Minneapolis achieve sustainability goals, it will hurt hardworking low- and middle-class families whose grocery bills are already too expensive as well as small businesses that will face more burdens and red tape. It will only be a matter of time for Minneapolis residents to see why this policy has failed everywhere it’s been tried, and perhaps then the City Council will look into recycling-based solutions that actually benefit the environment and the economy.”

With the city council's vote, Minneapolis joins more than 160 other U.S. cities that have put regulations on carryout bags in some way.

From here, city staff will report back to the Health, Environment and Community Engagement Committee by Jan. 31, 2017 with recommendations on how to implement and enforce the new ordinance.