On Thursday, City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito backed an effort to reduce plastic bag use and waste.
Councilman Brad Lander, D-Brooklyn, championed the legislation, which will charge a nickel for each plastic or paper bag New Yorkers use at supermarkets and shops. The fee is meant to encourage shoppers to bring reusable bags to stores instead of taking plastic ones.
The city spends more than $12 million a year dumping 91,000 pounds of plastic bags in landfills, according to the council. Lander had already amassed majority support for the bill, but it could be the tightest vote of the council's legislative season, he told Crain's.
Opponents of the bill say its yet another tax on city residents and burdens the poor. The proposed fee was reduced to 5 cents from 10 cents to address such concerns.
Mark-Viverito's support for the bill guarantees its passage next week by the City Council.
29 comments:
$12,000,000/91,000 = $131.87 per pound of plastic bags.
How about those a-holes search around for a cheaper way to dispose of waste?
This law, like the 'sugary drink' tax targets and has disproportionate impact on the poor.
They are to be sacrificed on the altar of the Green movement.
There must be something funny in the water in Park Slope that turns your brain into shit. This guy Lander, who holds DeBlasio's old seat, wants us to use unsanitary reusable shipping bags so we can then buy plastic bags to put our garbage in. Maybe he has a relative in the garbage bag business.
It is NOT a tax ... it is a charge for a bag. I much prefer getting a bonus, too, for bringing my own though bag as they do at Whole Foods. Have you any idea how much easier it is to carry a large cloth bag than to carry a large number of plastic ones?
"Purchases made with food stamps will be exempt from the bag fee, as will bags used for medication at pharmacies, prepared foods from restaurants and thin bags used for produce and meats at grocery stores."
Another Manhatanite bill that will screw the residents of Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island and the Bronx who aren't already feeding off the government's teet.
And who gets to keep the five cent bag fee? The grocer? The City?
And do we get a refund for the used bags we return to the store?
How about when an item is too heavy to be contained with one bag?
Do you have to pay twice to double bag a gallon of milk?
Fuck the City Council if they pass this anti-borough law.
Just waiting for the City to figure out a way to tax the air we breathe.
Patterson tried to tax bangles a nickel just for cutting it,
They can't help it,they crave money and the power it buys.
The only plastic bags Vivorito should tax are condoms
Plenty of those in the streets of the Bronx
The tax wil hurt. But Billie D's indictment will soothe the pain for awhile. So looking forward for the media scrum when he get's led outta the FBI Hdqtr's for the short ride to Federal Court. Or Maybe he will be arrested and detained in his Brooklyn brownstone, or at the gym where he is calibrating his weight instead of attending to more pressing official duties, like the death of a fireman????. Or will it be the cortege out of Gracie Mansion. His embarassment will surpass even Rudy Giuliani's, Bernard Kericks, and even covering Donald Manes when he plunged a knife into his heart, and we gathered in the parking lot of Booth Memorial Hospital.
De Blasio's fall will surpass everything on Mayoral history; even Jimmy Walker. I want to see his ass in the Federal lockup, and eventually being pen pals with Sheldon Silver, dean Skelos, and all the barnacles of our corroded system.
Saving $0.05 for a bag gives you a warm, fuzzy feeling?
Hike up your hemp pants you filthy hippie!
President Trump is going to put an end to this Global Warming nonsense!
I will gladly pay the 5¢ fee if Melissa Mark-Viverito would put a bag over her head.
:"The only plastic bags Vivorito should tax are condoms"
Or the plastic bag she should put over her head.
Now what am I going to put the dog shit in?
Are you kidding me? Charging people for bags, people can't even survive living here paying rent, food and other bills. Start think how to improve the quanity of life and open up some hospitals in Queens. That's where you should be paying attention.
So do I still have to pay the tax if the cheap bag they gives me breaks before I leave the store?
Paper bags? Seriously?
what about our garbage different colors and they want cardboard boxes in plastic bags why cant we vote on this instead of them telling us what do and for us to give them our money this is dictatorship
There is no end to the taxing of New Yorkers. The politicians love our hard earned money, all under the guise of saving the planet. It just makes it seem so noble. Tolls, fees, tickets for 30 miles per hour speeding, there's simply no end to the milking of the tax payers. And guess who's going to pay for the new $500 summonses for all the public urinating, law breaking and vandalizing? It's all going to come out of our taxes.
Soo glad the food stamp people don't have to pay, when buying their overpriced food with my money.
I will want to see who voted for what-I told Vallone's office a couple of months ago this was a deal-breaker and if it passes, Vallone's not getting my vote ever again. I'm sure he could give a flying crap whether I vote for him or not, the local sheeple will lazily accept this corruption. These Manhattancentric so-called legislators are so full of shit and themselves. Another reason to move to western Nassau County from eastern Queens when we're both retired. At least there you see the results of your taxes-libraries, pools, parks, senior and community recreation centers. Everything in the city is done to screw its citizens. Mark-Viverito and her minions do not deserve another term in office!!!
Yes the food stamp people don't pay, the rich can afford it so the middle class gets screwed again ! This is the formula for the last 50+ years.
I will pay another 5 cents for the second bag over Mellisas's head because you know she is definitely a double bagger.
I'm pretty much convinced that the all the mayor and city council do is show up, sit down, and say how can we f shit up in the city even more today.
Wake up you idiots. Many major cities already ban plastic bags. What is unsanitary about a cloth bag you can throw in the wash? They're much easier to carry, hold more, and won't end up in trees. Or do you think there's nothing prettier than a plastic bag tree outside your window?
Has it dawned on Speaker She-Troll that does undeserved bonuses they voted for themselves have become detrimental to the city? This can only be the way to make up for the wasted lucre they plundered from the citizenship who now have to suffer more to do daily routines. For now that even supermarkets and bags have become luxury amenities and items respectively.
What about a carbon tax for all the tower people that use fresh direct and amazon for deliveries?
My only beef is the tax also applies to paper bags. The plastic are fucking terrible and if you don't stop them at the grocery store they'll triple bag a half dozen eggs. Don't want to pay the tax bring a $0.75 reusable bag. This isn't classist warfare, this is an attempt for everyone to be more conscious of the shit were putting in landfills. I'm not a tree hugger by any means but the fact is the bag situation is out of control.
-somethingstructural
supermarkets, bodegas and the axis of glorified 7/11 pharmacies (rite aid,cvs,walgreens) are the real culprits. Their cashiers are trained to bag and double bag every item, no matter how light. The other day at Rite Aid, I bought a liter of coke and goldfish crackers and the guy double bagged both of them. 4 bags for two items! This has been going on for a decade plus.
Imagine the fees accrued if these idiotic store policies continue.
And I beg to differ but this isn't classist, as energy corporations and manufacturers are responsible for a century of the pollution accumulated and although they get slapped on the wrists with fines, it's just a drop in the bucket for these fiends. Whilst that extra 75 cents for bags takes away from buying bread and milk.
It's easy to go after the poor and middle class because they are more easier to find, And fine.
Happy May Day to all workers under wage stagnation
"What is unsanitary about a cloth bag you can throw in the wash?" ... Remember that the next time your milk leaks, your chicken blood leaks, or you break an egg. As for me, I have enough laundry to do.
Plastic bags are needed by tenants living in high rise apartment buildings. They use the plastic bags for their garbage, which is then pushed down the trash room chute to the basement compactors.
Who is going to count the bags used ? The cashier has enough to do this will slow down the checkout process.
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