[Westside Market on 3rd Avenue]
As you probably know, the statewide ban on single-use plastic bags used at grocery stores, delis and other retailers (anyone required to collect New York State sales tax) went into effect overnight.
So you'll need to bring your own bag(s) to transport your purchases (if you didn't do so already) ... places such as Union Market on Houston at Avenue A will credit you 10 cents per bag...
Unfortunately, this Bag Waste Reduction Law means that we will no longer will have the Key Food holiday plastic bags to look forward to. But, for 99 cents, you may buy this sturdier plastic Key Food bag to carry your groceries...
Retailers are expected to have a stash of paper bags for use — for an additional 5-cent fee.
What else? Here's some details courtesy of the Times:
The ban will not be aggressively enforced right away, but merchants could eventually face penalties — $250 for a first violation and $500 for a repeat.
The exceptions
Stores can give out single-use plastic bags for certain items, including uncooked meat, sliced or prepared food and prescription drugs. Restaurants can provide the bags for takeout. Newspaper bags, garment bags and bags sold in bulk, such as trash or recycling bags, are also exempt from the ban.
Where the fees from paper bags go
Local governments that require a paper bag fee will keep 2 cents per bag to spend on programs aimed at distributing reusable bags. The remaining 3 cents will go to the state’s Environmental Protection Fund.
Gothamist has a nice primer here. For A LOT more details, visit the NYS Department of Environemental Conservation website.
In recent days, the Department of Sanitation passed out free reusable bags ... with Mayor de Blasio helping out this past Friday at Union Square...
[Photo by Derek Berg]
"This is another step to saving our Earth, saving our city," de Blasio said.
13 comments:
Finally! What took so fucking long? Many states out west have had this in place for several years. I haven't used plastic bags for anything for over ten years. I have my own recyclable and reusable bag. These very plastic bags that grocery stores give out are often found eventually in the intestines of marine wildlife and along the sea shore and also on the seabed. As a society, we must come together for the sake of humanity and contribute in the least selfish way by making small efforts which will lead to less of a carbon footprint. Once you create a habit of bringing your own bags everywhere, it starts to kick in and you never go back. I have been visiting Germany and France for years. Guess what? They don't even have bags to offer at most grocery stores. Residents bring their own bags. I for one am delighted and hope the rest of the country follows suit.
Glad to see the comment section NIMBY-free on this topic!
Stock up on Strand bags while they last. Dumb Blastio is an idiot commie.
Stock up on plastic bags and put one in your bag or pocket on the way to the store.
Maybe the anti platic pols can join the commies and relocate to Cuba with Bernie.
"Plastic."--Dustin Hoffman
What do I use plastic bags for? My garbage! So what do I do? I'll have to become a buyer of Glad bags. Half a dozen of one. Yes,the environment, and yes may places around the world have instituted this restriction. Has anyone studied the garbage issue?
We’re out of real problems.
You show them, bill! Lenny, another great patriot, has shown it's possible to fight back!
https://frinkiac.com/caption/S12E17/258133
When I was growing up in what used to be Soviet Ukraine we didn’t use plastic bags for anything. Not even trash. People would actually wash their plastic bags and reuse them when they got their hands in one. You’d pile trash into a container and took it to the dumpster. You need it to take out trash often or it would stink. When we went to a store we brought our own bag yes people didn’t consume food by the ton. Not to say that Soviet life was great but plastic waste was not a problem.
Just buy a box of bags ($20 for 1000), and bring your own. Use them for your groceries, re-use them as trash bags.
They are not banned or outlawed. Just not free at the checkout anymore.
The good news is that now anyone can buy a nickel bag in the East Village.
Some real good points/perspectives in these comments. As people from Soviet Ukraine could attest, use of plastic is more like a privilege than a right. And yeah, this is not a ban, more like a surcharge aimed at reducing waste. If anyone wants to get mad over this, get mad at all the losers of the world who litter and caused all the problems in the first place. This is squarely their fault.
Given that most of the people in NYC these days are of the type that the late Frank ZAPPA would have referred to as "plastic people", this is entirely appropriate.
@bill - you're wrong (as usual). Nobody said "plastic"; it was "plastics." And it wasn't Dustin Hoffman (or his character) who said that.
I have a small step-can with a plastic bucket liner and instead of lining that with a plastic bag and taking my trash out when I leave the building, I'll just empty the bucket downstairs on an as need basis and bring it right back up again. Since I recycle and compost already, my regular old trash is never really wet or smelly, and a few extra stair runs never hurt anyone, so I don't think giving up plastic bags as bin liners will be a problem.
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