Mayor de Blasio today held a public hearing for legislation requiring stores to charge a fee of at least five cents for single-use carryout bags provided to customers in an effort to encourage people to use reusable bags when shopping.
The bill, Intro. 209-A, requires stores to charge a fee of at least five cents for each carryout bag provided to a customer. This bill includes exemptions for take-out or delivery orders from restaurants, produce, meats, fish and dairy product bags without handles used within grocery stores and bags provided by pharmacies prescription medications.
The fee is also waived for customers using food stamps and for emergency food providers, such as food pantries. Stores will also be able to provide their customers with reusable carryout bags free of charge for a two-week period from October 1, 2016, to October 14, 2016 and for a two-week period each year thereafter from April 17 to April 30.
The Department of Sanitation projects that this bill could reduce paper bag waste – which have clogged water systems and littered City streets – by approximately 60 percent.
“Intro. 209-A strikes the right balance, reducing reliance on single-use bags and incentivizing the use of reusable bags, while safeguarding consumers with some logical exemptions to protect vulnerable New Yorkers,” said de Blasio. “This bill is integral to OneNYC – our commitment to sending Zero Waste to landfills by 2030 – a necessary goal that will create a more sustainable City.”
Park Slope City Council Member Brad Lander, who sponsored the measure, said the bill takes a big step forward to get rid of the 9 billion plastic bags the City wastes each year.
“The Bring Your Own Bag bill, will eliminate tens of thousands of tons of solid waste, save the City millions, reduce truck trips in communities of color and help clean up our trees, parks, playgrounds, streets, beaches, oceans,” said Lander. “In city after city, a small fee on single-use carryout bags has been overwhelmingly successful in getting people to bring their own reusable bags when they shop – across lines of race, income, and age – and generated a 60 percent to 90 percent drop in plastic bag waste. New Yorkers will start bringing reusable bags to avoid the fee, and together we will drastically cut back on the number of bags we use.”
Bushwick/Williamsburg City Council Member Antonio Reynoso, Chair of the Committee on Sanitation and Solid Waste Management noted that New Yorkers send 91,000 tons of plastic bags to landfills every year, which means these bags account for more than 7,000 truck trips every year.
“These trucks travel primarily to low-income communities of color, causing high levels of asthma and other respiratory problems, noise pollution, and dangerous streets. Reducing plastic bag waste is just one part of the City’s larger goal of sending zero waste to landfills by 2030, and reaching this goal will make a huge difference in quality-of-life in these environmental justice communities,” Reynoso said.
The measure passed 28-20, but the Brooklyn lawmakers voted against it 8-6. Voting against the measure were Council Members Inez barron, Robert Cornegy Jr., Chaim Deutsch, Mathieu Eugene, Vincent Gentile, David Greenfield, Darlene Mealy and Mark Tryeger.
Regardless of the public hearing, de Blasio is expected to sign the measure at a later date.
