PLASTIC CARRIER BAGS
Governor signs bill overturning New York City bag charge / Taskforce to draft new proposals
Plans by New York City to charge 5 cents for single-trip bags made of plastic or paper have been consigned to the dustbin for now – see Plasteurope.com of 18.05.2016. After the state legislature on 7 February voted to overturn the charge, which was part of mayor Bill de Blasio’s Zero Waste to Landfill by 2030 drive, governor Andrew M. Cuomo signed the legislature’s bill into law on 14 February, a day before the charge was due to take effect. For several years, the city has been trying to deal with a growing volume of post-consumer waste. Alone the bill passed in 2016 was the result of a two-year debate. In 2008, New York mayor Michael Bloomberg failed to draw sufficient support for a bag charge. An attempt by the city in 2015 to ban disposable PS packaging was overturned by the state supreme court – see Plasteurope.com of 28.09.2015 and 05.07.2016.
Opponents of the bag charge had differing arguments as to why it would be infeasible. Some state lawmakers said it would impose a financial burden on low-income families – even though recipients of food stamps for the poor were exempted. Others said reusable bags were unhygienic as they were often not washed. An argument used by Cuomo was that the charge had only “narrowly” passed the New York City Council – the vote was 28-20. The most often heard objection was that retailers were to be allowed to keep the bag fee instead of donating the money to environmental causes, as had been discussed earlier. This, Cuomo said, would represent a “giveaway” of USD 100m annually.
In place of the charge, the governor said he would create a statewide task force to develop other ways of addressing the waste problem, in cooperation with local officials, other stakeholders and leaders appointed by the Senate and the Assembly, the two houses of the state legislature. Several local politicians are now rummaging in the back drawer for proposals they made in the past, which failed to gain recognition. Cuomo has set an end-of-year deadline for the task force to produce a report and a proposal for new legislation.
New York environmental groups may now push for a statewide fee on plastic bags – or even an outright ban. “Our true goal is to reduce plastic pollution in the environment,” Adrienne Esposito, executive director of Citizens Campaign for the Environment, told a New York newspaper. “Not only is it bad for the environment, it’s litter,” she said. "It kills marine life. And it costs a lot to clean up.”
In California, legislation calling for a statewide charge of 10 cents for single-trip plastic carrier bags presented to voters as Proposition 67 during the November 2016 general election was narrowly approved. At the same time, another Proposition was rejected that would have seen the money raised from retailers’ sales of recycled paper bags and reusable cloth bags go to an environmental fund. California grocers had insisted they would not profit from the charge, as they could have to pay as much as 10 cents for a paper bag, compared with only a few cents for the thin plastic bags currently in use – these are to be phased out.
Opponents of the bag charge had differing arguments as to why it would be infeasible. Some state lawmakers said it would impose a financial burden on low-income families – even though recipients of food stamps for the poor were exempted. Others said reusable bags were unhygienic as they were often not washed. An argument used by Cuomo was that the charge had only “narrowly” passed the New York City Council – the vote was 28-20. The most often heard objection was that retailers were to be allowed to keep the bag fee instead of donating the money to environmental causes, as had been discussed earlier. This, Cuomo said, would represent a “giveaway” of USD 100m annually.
In place of the charge, the governor said he would create a statewide task force to develop other ways of addressing the waste problem, in cooperation with local officials, other stakeholders and leaders appointed by the Senate and the Assembly, the two houses of the state legislature. Several local politicians are now rummaging in the back drawer for proposals they made in the past, which failed to gain recognition. Cuomo has set an end-of-year deadline for the task force to produce a report and a proposal for new legislation.
New York environmental groups may now push for a statewide fee on plastic bags – or even an outright ban. “Our true goal is to reduce plastic pollution in the environment,” Adrienne Esposito, executive director of Citizens Campaign for the Environment, told a New York newspaper. “Not only is it bad for the environment, it’s litter,” she said. "It kills marine life. And it costs a lot to clean up.”
In California, legislation calling for a statewide charge of 10 cents for single-trip plastic carrier bags presented to voters as Proposition 67 during the November 2016 general election was narrowly approved. At the same time, another Proposition was rejected that would have seen the money raised from retailers’ sales of recycled paper bags and reusable cloth bags go to an environmental fund. California grocers had insisted they would not profit from the charge, as they could have to pay as much as 10 cents for a paper bag, compared with only a few cents for the thin plastic bags currently in use – these are to be phased out.
20.02.2017 Plasteurope.com [236221-0]
Published on 20.02.2017