First Official Notices Sent Out To City Stores For Controversial Plastic Bag Bill

Last week stores citywide began receiving the first official notices reminding them that, as of February 15, 2017, they will need to charge customers five cents for all plastic bags. The notice reads, as per a photo of it published in the Brooklyn Eagle:

Pursuant to New York City law, all carryout bags provided by this store to a customer, with limited exceptions, shall be subject to a fee of not less than five cents ($0.05) per bag.

Carryout bags brought by customers into this store to carry purchased goods from this store shall not be subject to a fee.

The City Council’s controversial plastic bag fee legislation — which passed on May 5 — was initially intended to start in October but became held up in Albany thanks to opposition from state legislators, who call the fee a “tax on the poor” targeting lower income residents, the elderly, and others on fixed incomes.

The bill is intended to cut New Yorker’s reliance on environmentally hazardous single-use shopping bags, of which New Yorkers contribute roughly 10 billion bags to landfills every year, according to the Department of Sanitation.

The legislation stirred fierce controversy in the City Council, where it narrowly passed 28-20. Debate raged between pro-bag-fee Council Member Brad Lander, representing Park Slope, Windsor Terrace, Kensington, and Boro Park; and anti-bag-fee Council Member Chaim Deutsch, representing sections of Midwood, Brighton Beach, and Sheepshead Bay. Council Member Jumaane Williams, representing Flatbush, supported the bill after a study of its potential impact on low-income New Yorkers.

“The plastic bag got a short reprieve — but its days of littering our trees, parks, and oceans, clogging up our storm drains and recycling equipment, and filling up our landfills with tons of solid waste are numbered,” said Lander, soon after the bill passed. “The extra few months will allow us to do an even better job of outreach and reusable bag giveaways to help New Yorkers in all communities get ready to start bringing their own bags. We thank the Assembly for refusing to go along with the Senate’s anti-environmental overreach, and look forward to working with them toward thoughtful implementation.”

[H/t: Brooklyn Eagle]

Additional reporting by Carly Miller.