West Hollywood has joined other Californian cities to ban single-use plastic bags.

West Hollywood has now joined a string of Californian cities in banning single-use plastic bags at store checkout lines.

Along with Santa Monica, Long Beach and Pasadena, the area adopted an ordinance this week prohibiting hundreds of pharmacies, grocery and retail stores in the 1.9 square-mile city from distributing such carrier bags.

This is in line with one already in effect with unincorporated parts of Los Angeles County and was approved as one aspect of the council's consent calendar.

Speaking to the Los Angeles Times, West Hollywood Mayor Jeffrey Prang said: "Local governments have been charged, I think rightfully so, to reduce the amount of waste we put in the waste system."

"Plastic bags are costing us money and filling up landfills," he added.

The ban is hoped to encourage local residents to shop with reusable bags or paper bags with at least 40 per cent recycled content.

Each one will incur a small charge to attract more people to reuse their current bags. However, anyone receiving subsidised groceries will not be required to pay this minimal fee.

Larger retailers, who own floor space of 10,000 square feet or more are required to stop using plastic carrier bags within the next six months, while smaller stores will have a year.

Food service providers such as restaurants and farmers markets are currently not included in the ban.

West Hollywood's single-use plastic bag ban has been met with little resistance from consumers or retailers and is being fully supporting by the local Chamber of Commerce, who are aiming to help businesses adjust to the changes.

Also speaking to the newspaper, Sarah Paulson Sheehy, a spokeswoman for The California Grocers Association, said that the organisation was grateful that the ban was on all retailers, not solely the supermarket industry.

"If a plastic bag is detrimental at a grocery store, it's harmful at a hardware store," she went on to say.