Proposed Bill Adds $.10 Fee Per Shopping Bag in NYC
Stores would be required to slap a 10-cent fee on every plastic and paper bag they give out under a new law being introduced in the New York City Council.
The fee – which the stores would keep – is intended to cut down on the whopping 5.2 billion disposable bags that New Yorkers use every year, backers say – which generate 100 tons of waste and cost the city $10 million to schlep to landfills.
“People will, when this charge goes into place, just start using a lot less bags that they don’t need,” said Councilman Brad Lander (D-Brooklyn), who is sponsoring the bill with Councilwoman Margaret Chin (D-Manhattan).
“The nice thing about this charge is you can avoid it entirely.”
The fee would apply to all retail stores, but not restaurants, and exempt all purchases made with food stamps. It would apply to street vendors selling merchandise other than food.
Other cities that have adopted bag fees have seen a 60-95% reduction in bag use, backers say.
“The strategy could not be simpler: You walk into a store, and the clerk asks, ‘Do you want a bag? It will cost you an extra dime,” said Dan Hendrick of the New York League of Conservation Voters. “The answer, we’re hoping, will be no, so through this market-based incentive we’re really able to make a real difference for our environment.”
Mayor Bloomberg previously proposed a six-cent fee for plastic bags – five cents of which the city would collect as a tax to plug budget gaps – but the idea died in budget negotiations.
A Bloomberg spokesman said the administration was reviewing the new proposal. City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said she hasn’t taken a position.
Brad Gerstman of the New York Association of Grocery Stores called it another heavy-handed government mandate on businesses that would just irritate shoppers.
“It’s terrible anti-business legislation,” he said. “Every time they come up with one of these nanny state solution…all we’re doing is turning to our business partners that help drive the economy or drive employment and saying to them we have no concern whatsoever for you.”
Businesses could be subject to a fine if they failed to collect the fee, though they would get a warning for the first offense.
The city would conduct a citywide reusable bag giveaway before the rules took effect.
horrible idea
now you’re taking away our bags too
what in the world is up with our governments
CHLEAKS.COM
Brad Lander (D-Brooklyn), and Councilwoman Margaret Chin (D-Manhattan) are another two losers who could not make it anywhere else and therefore became politicians.
Useless Politicians who have nothing better to do then to make stupid laws, so they can say they are doing something.
Obviously they have no understanding of how business/people work.
Thank you bloomberg
Now when I what to pick up some diapers and milk after a chasuneh, I’ll have to stuff 10 plastic bags into my evening bag? Oy Vey!
The way they did it in Seattle was much better – every bag YOU brought and used SAVED you 2 cents.
Why can’t the government give back? They only want to take.
And Thank You very much, but I don’t want a reusable bag from the citywide giveaway – goodness knows what kind of anti-MBP propaganda will be advertised on it!
Good idea
Australia and most of Europe does this already. I don’t know what’s taken the US so long.
Milhouse
In San Francisco, where they’ve done this, the result has been that people are getting sick,. The reusable shopping bags need to be washed in between uses, but who really does that? It doesn’t happen, so E Coli breed in the bag, and people get infected.
european
Yes its done here. But not 10 cents more like 3-5 cents. it definitely saves people using bags and makes you think before you go. GREAT IDEA!!!
Milhouse
In Germany it’s 10 cents. But it’s a bad idea; there’s no shortage of bags, and no shortage of landfill, the eco-freaks just hate the idea. Reuse shopping bags by all means – as garbage bags, or for general storage, but it shouldn’t be the shopkeepers’ concern, or the government’s.
Its nothing new.
this already started in many cities in the US like LA for example.
To #4
The reason why it took the US so long, is because we used to be something called a “Free country” where Liberty is our value and politicians don’t try to take care of and control our lives from cradle to grave and from womb to tomb. See, there was a time when the government didn’t tell us what kind of light-bulbs we must have, and how much water our toilet must use to flush, or how much stores must charge for this and that, and whether they could give shopping bags for free or must charge for it, and we survived pretty nicely.
Australia and most of Europe don’t have Liberty as their priority, that’s what set America apart from everyone else, until now (or relatively recently). Unfortunately as time goes on the nanny-liberals/”progressives” destroy more and more of our freedoms and turn this place into a – command and control nanny state, where shopping bags are regulated by the government – for instance. unfortunately they’re winning and we’re losing. (sniffle)
Liberal
Who cares about people? We care only about “saving the planet”, even at the cost of killing all the people.
;)
let's be careful not harmful
THAT IS GOOD and saves G-D’s planet
Milhouse
G-d’s planet is there for us to use. He made it for us, and He gave it to us and told us to fill it and dominate it, and exploit it to its full potential. The motive behind environmentalism is the exact opposite — it’s a pagan nature worship, whose slogan is “The earth doesn’t belong to us, we belong to it”.
In any case, as I pointed out above, the result of these measures is sick people. In San Francisco the numbers are in, and all the money that was supposedly saved by reusing bags is less than what was spent treating the people who got sick from it. The same will happen anywhere else, and undoubtedly has happened, they just haven’t looked for the evidence.
canadian
Welcome… we already got it in ontario!
90xx
its a great idea. why not take care of HaShem’s world the best we can…..absolutely.