BOSTON – Last month, the Boston City Council okayed a ban on plastic bags, with a nickel fee for thicker bags handed out at drug stores, supermarkets and convenience stores. This week, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh signed the measure into law, Boston Magazine reports. The city is the 60th in Massachusetts to have such a ban.

Even though he expressed reservations about who would pay for the ban, Walsh ultimately approved it because “in theory, it’s great for the environment.” Opponents fret that the ban will negatively impact lower-income residents, while the Retailers Association of Massachusetts believes it will vex tourists.

"Imagine being an out-of-state tourist and going to Faneuil Hall [or] Quincy Market during the holiday season and having to pay for a bag,” said Jon Hurst, the association’s president. “That just sends the wrong message.”

The bag fee won’t be implemented until December 2018 to give retailers and residents time to adjust to the changes. In August, Chicago released a study on its 7-cent-per-plastic-bag fee that supported its assertion that it did alter shopper behavior. Research on a Washington, D.C., disposable bag tax showed that grocery stores didn’t experience an uptick in plastic bag usage in the more than two years that the tax has been in effect.