Posted on 03/01/2020 1:49:03 PM PST by conservative98
Here’s where you can stuff your plastic-bag ban.
New Yorkers were forced to begin grappling with a new shopping reality Sunday as the state’s ban on plastic shopping bags kicked in — and not many people were happy about it.
“I think it’s ridiculous,” letter-carrier Scott Kimmel, 56, said while shopping at the Whitestone Target in College Point, Queens. “I understand about ‘conserve, take care of the environment,’ but c’mon!”
About half the shoppers seen by The Post on the first day of the bag ban, including Kimmel, were compensating by bringing their own bags from home, while another quarter opted to just go bagless rather than pay the 5-cent paper-bag fee allowed under the law, and the remaining 25 percent coughed up the nickel charge per bag.
“I was totally shocked,” Target shopper Richie Alvarez, 49, said of the move. “This is what our world is coming to. Yeah, they charged me extra for the bag. That’s why I only took one. It would normally be two or three bags.”
The law, passed by state lawmakers last year, bars single-use plastic bags at any retailer — from supermarkets to bodegas — that collects sales tax at their store.
It allows shoppers to bring bags from home, buy a reusable bag at the store, or pay the 5-cent fee for paper bags.
Although it went into effect Sunday, state officials said they won’t bring the hammer down on retailers who ignore the law until April, when fines could start to kick in.
“People don’t want to hear this,” said the manager of C-Town Supermarket on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, who only identified himself as Henry. “They’re not happy. At least I have a month to break them in. We’re trying to get cheap mesh bags for them. We’ll see.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Also these bags are NOT single use.
Millions of people re-use them to clean the litter box, pick up dog poop, line small trash receptors and a hundred other uses. A buddy of mine uses them for luggage. lol
” they’re just better, and called “multiple use”.”
Haven’t seen that yet myself here in NY State. In my neck of the woods, there’s no plastic available, but paper is available for a surcharge, largely payable to the state. Time will tell.
Chemung County Legislators set to vote on resolution opposing paper bag fee
Not every county in NYS opted for mandating the fee. One merchant in Chemung County is charging 10 cents a bag. Most of the consumers I've talked to think the bag charge is the county's fault. This is the county legislature voting to inform them otherwise.
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