Could the Riviera Maya ban plastic bags?

From an article by Nacha Cattan posted on The News:

Mexico City's Assembly on Tuesday passed a ban on all plastic bags at grocery stores and supermarkets.

The ban will go into effect in one year, giving the plastic industry time to adopt new technology - such as plastics made of corn that would disintegrate within weeks - the law's sponsors said.

"This is an environmental achievement without precedent in Mexico," said Leonardo Alvarez Romo, a Green Party lawmaker and sponsor of the bill. "This should serve as an example for other states as well as the federal government."

Modeled after bans in China and San Francisco, the restriction states: "No commercial establishment may give away a plastic bag for transporting, handling or packaging their products."

The strict law applies to all stores, including dry cleaners, which will no longer be able to return clothing in plastic covers, said Assemblyman Xiuh Tenorio, another sponsor of the bill. Store owners who give away plastic bags for free risk arrest of up to 36 hours or fines of as much as 1 million pesos. The only exceptions will be granted for sanitation purposes.

Currently, Mexico City and the metropolitan area use 20 million bags per day, each of which takes hundreds of years to decompose, Alvarez Romo said.