Brian Dale Chicago:

This week, Mayor Rahm Emanuel's tax plan finally went into effect and with it Chicago passed a seven cent tax on single-use plastic bags for all stores.  It will go into effect Jan. 1, 2017 throughout Chicago. 

Emanuel's budget includes a new seven-cent fee on store-provided plastic and paper bags. A late change means people in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program would be exempt from that fee.

Five cents of the fee will go to the city and the remaining 2 cents to retailers. It's expected to pump about $13 million into city coffers and encourage shoppers to bring their own reusable bags after a 2014 ban on thinner plastic bags did less than hoped to achieve that goal.

For more details please read the article at Chicago Tribune:  http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/politics/ct-rahm-emanuel-city-council-budget-test-vote-met-1108-20161107-story.html

Some have doubts that this will reduce waste.  I think we have seen in many cities that when these laws are enacted they drastically reduce waste and Chicago should not be any different. 

Read more at the Daily Herald:  http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20161116/business/161119209/