LOS ANGELES – More than 20 million Americans reside in a town or county that prohibits plastic bags or adds a fee to their use, the Earth Policy Institute reports on Grist.com. Currently, 132 localities have some sort of anti-plastic bag ordinance on their books.

In other parts of the United States, consumers use 100 billion plastic bags annually. But many communities and cities, including New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, are changing that as a way to reduce litter and trash. This week, Beverly Hills became the latest city to pass an ordinance outlawing the sale of plastic carryout bags and assessing a 10-cent fee to paper bags.

The humble plastic bag started its journey more than 50 years ago in Sweden. Many American consumers hated the bag when it was introduced in this country in 1976, but now most of us couldn’t imagine life without them.

The backlash against plastic bags is heating up as California aims to become the first state with an outright ban on the bags. But not every area is jumping on the anti-plastic bag bandwagon. Florida doesn’t allow its cities to enact any plastic bag ban or fees. Meanwhile, the European Union has proposed a ban or fee for plastic bags.