OLYMPIA — In Washington, customers will begin to pay more for plastic bags, and those who choose to litter will be facing high fines after Gov. Bob Ferguson signed House Bill 1293 into law Saturday.

“People who dump garbage in our beautiful state must be held accountable,” said sponsor Rep. Mark Klicker, R-Walla Walla, in a statement. “Increasing the littering penalty for the first time since 1993 is an important step in addressing our horrible littering problem.”

HB 1293, which received bipartisan support and ultimately passed, with a 46-2 vote in the House and a 27-20 vote in the Senate, raises the penalty for littering to a class 2 civil infraction. Littering was previously a Class 3 civil infraction.

This increases the base penalty from $50 to $125 for littering an amount less than or equal to one cubic foot, or about the size of a backpack. In addition to the base penalty, there will be an added $93 issued for dropping materials on state highways.

As stated in the bill, “It is a violation of this section to throw, drop, deposit, discard, or otherwise dispose of litter upon any public property in the state … whether from a vehicle or otherwise.”

Klicker said he has noticed an increase of litter throughout the state, which is why he proposed the bill.

Data from the Washington State Department of Ecology backs up these observations. The agency found that in 2022, garbage dumped along Washington roadways and parks was 42% higher than the national average.

Washingtonians were responsible for nearly 38 million pounds of litter annually, which is around 5 pounds per person or 897 pieces of litter, according to the report.

“I have encountered everything from bottles to cups to plastic bags to paper bags, baby cribs, tires, mattresses, and sofas on our interstates,” Klicker said in a statement.

The bill does not only focus on littering; it also addresses the impact of single-use plastic bags, a major contributor to the litter issue, according to Klicker and the bill report.

In 2020, legislation was enacted to prohibit the use of single-use plastic bags, mandating that retail establishments provide consumers with either paper bags or thicker, reusable plastic bags available for purchase.

Currently, reusable plastic bags are priced at 8 cents and must meet a minimum thickness of 2.25 mils, where one mil equals one-thousandth of an inch.

Starting on Jan. 1, 2026, the law stipulates an increase in the price of these bags to 12 cents and an increase in the required thickness to four mils.

However, the Senate has postponed the enforcement of this thickness requirement by an additional two years. Retailers that sell reusable plastic bags meeting or exceeding the four-mil thickness before 2028 will incur a penalty of 4 cents for each bag sold, effectively raising the cost to consumers to a total of 16 cents per bag on their receipts.

The revenue generated from this penalty will be allocated to the Waste Reduction, Recycling and Litter Control Account, aimed at mitigating the adverse effects of litter.

The price for paper bags will remain unchanged at 8 cents each.