New York’s plastic bag ban takes effect Sunday

New York’s statewide ban on plastic carryout bags takes effect Sunday, March 1.

As of Sunday, shoppers in Suffolk County will no longer have the option of paying a nickel to buy a single-use plastic bag at store registers. They — and shoppers across the state — will still be able to buy a paper carryout bag for 5 cents, if the store offers paper bags.

The new state law, passed last year to help reduce plastic waste — bans the distribution of plastic carryout bags by any vendor required to collect New York State sales tax. (Tax-exempt sales are included in the ban.) The law allows distribution of paper bags, upon payment of a 5-cent fee.

There are limited exemptions to the plastic bag ban. These include bags:

• used solely to contain or wrap uncooked meat, fish, seafood, poultry, like the plastic film bags available at most supermarket meat cases;
• used solely to contain food sliced or prepared to order;
• used for newspaper delivery to a subscriber.

Also exempt are plastic bags sold as trash bags, food storage bags, garment bags (such as those used by a dry cleaner or laundry service), bags provided by a restaurant or similar food service establishment to carry out or deliver prepared food and bags provided by pharmacies to carry prescription drugs. (See state regulations finalized earlier this month.)

Stores can still distribute plastic reusable bags, but the definition of a reusable bag excludes bags made of plastic film.

The new law is aimed at reducing both the demand for plastic bags and the waste created by their use by incentivizing consumers to bring their own reusable bags to the store.

After their introduction in the U.S. by Mobil Oil in 1976, single-use plastic bags rapidly overtook paper bags in the retail marketplace — representing 4 out of 5 bags grocery bags used in the U.S. in 1997. The U.S. now consumes 100 billion single-use plastic carryout bags per year — almost one bag per person each day. Laid end-to-end, they could circle the equator 1,330 times. The average plastic bag is used for 12 minutes and only 1% of the plastic bags consumed in the U.S. is recycled. The rest end up in landfills or as litter. It takes 20 years for a plastic bag to biodegrade as litter and 1,000 years for it to biodegrade in a landfill — and when it does, it releases toxins into the environment, polluting soils and waters.

It takes 12 million barrels of oil and 3.9 billion gallons of fresh water to produce the 100 billion plastic bags consumed in the U.S. annually — 23 billion in New York State alone. The amount of energy required to make 12-14 plastic shopping bags could drive a car for a mile.

The environmental damage done by plastics, including plastic bags, is well-documented. Plastic pollution in the world’s oceans kills 100,000 marine animals annually. Plastic bags are ingested by animals on land and sea, often with fatal results.

The governor this week launched a statewide outreach and education campaign.

“Right this minute, plastic bags are hanging in trees, blowing down the streets, filling up our landfills and polluting our lakes, rivers and streams—all hurting our environment,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday.

“Twelve million barrels of oil are used to make the plastic bags we use every year and by 2050 there will be more plastic by weight in the oceans than fish. We took bold action to protect our environment and ban these environmental blights and with this campaign we’re going to make sure New Yorkers are ready and have all the facts.”

As part of the state’s effort, the DEC is distributing more than 270,000 reusable bags with a focus on low- and moderate-income communities. The 5-cent paper bag reduction fee imposed by the new law does not apply to SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) and WIC (Women, Infants, and Children — a nutrition program) recipients, who are exempt from paying a paper carryout bag reduction fee for paper carryout bags.