LANCASTER TOWNSHIP, Pa. (WHTM) – At the start of the new year, Lancaster Township will become the first community in the county – and one of the few in all of Pennsylvania – to ban single-use plastic bags. It took some time for the township to reach this decision.

Lancaster Township supervisor Steve Elliott said in a statement: “After a year of review, we determined that eliminating single-use plastic bags would provide an environment benefit with little impact on businesses and consumers. The bags just aren’t necessary and I think it’s a small part we can play in eliminating pollution. We have a great community and I hope that other local municipalities will join us.”

Businesses will have to shift to paper bags, or have customers bring reusable bags. Those reusable bags are nothing new to Al Groff.

“We use reusable bags at all of the stores we go to,” said Groff.

He has been using them for a while.

“15 to 20 years probably,” said Groff.

Zachary Taylor, the director of the American Recyclable Plastic Bag Alliance doesn’t see it the same way, especially with inflation still running high.

Taylor says in a statement: “As prices for everything from food to fuel remain stubbornly high, Lancaster Township’s decision will increase cost on stores and in turn, prices for shoppers at a time when families are struggling to keep up. Banning plastic bags – which are American made, widely reused, and easily recyclable – in favor of more expensive alternatives with greater environmental impacts won’t advance sustainability but will increase pain at checkout for Lancaster Township families.”

It may also be a pain for Giant, Weis Markets, CVS and other retailers in the township to manage. Yet, Groff says those who don’t agree with his support of the new ban will cause him no pain at all.

“There are people that don’t have a problem with [plastic bags]. I wouldn’t go out of my way to castigate someone who still uses plastic bags,” said Groff.