NEW YORK STATE is on the verge of banning plastic shopping bags, becoming the second U.S. state, after California, to ban them outright.

The ban, which is part of the state budget bill expected to pass Monday, would forbid retailers from providing shoppers with single-use bags. It would take effect next March.

Shopping bags are one of the most-banned items among single-use plastics and bag bans, which began to be enacted in 2000, continue to spread throughout the world. So far, at least 127 nations have imposed bans or taxes on plastic bags, according to a United Nations tally through July 2018. Europe began phasing out plastic bags 15 years ago. This week, the European Parliament took steps to ban 10 items most commonly found on European beaches, including bags, by 2021.

In the United States, state action on bags has begun to pick up pace. Aside from California, which banned shopping bags in 2016, they are also essentially banned in Hawaii because every county in the state has outlawed t