Paper or plastic? Both could cost you if a new bag-fee bill passes the Council.
But Southern Brooklyn pols are doing their best to stuff the proposed law, which would charge shoppers 10 cents per bag in most stores in the city.
One elected official acknowledged that plastic shopping bags are an environmental issue, but said the 10-cent fee is too drastic for residents.
“Plastic bags are certainly a big problem — they never go away, they’re in landfills forever,” said Councilman Alan Maisel (D–Marine Park). “The problem that I have is the people proposing it are making the public pay too much — the public doesn’t like it.”
But supporters of the bill said the intent isn’t to gouge shoppers for the dime-bag fee, but rather the steep sum is meant to encourage locals to bring their own sacks to the store.
“The goal of the bill is to not get people to pay a fee … It is to get people to avoid paying the fee,” said Sam Spokony, the spokesman for Councilwoman Margaret Chin (D–Manhattan), a sponsor of the bill. “The goal here is to promote the use of reusable bags.”
The Commissioner for the Department of Sanitation, Kathryn Garcia, said at a Nov. 19 hearing that the bill is modeled after other cities — including Dallas, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. — that have already implemented similar legislation, which she said has reduced these areas’ overall use of plastic bags.
The bill’s supporters point out that because plastic bags often clog waterways and can take up to 1,000 years to even partially decompose, the city spends $10 million dollars per year cleaning up bags. But they stress that the fee is not a tax — since the money goes to the merchants rather than the government.
One critic of the proposed fee says a proliferation of tote bags could even have unforeseen consequences for businesses — perhaps an increase shoplifting.
“If someone is a kleptomaniac and he has a bag, it is very easy for him to shoplift not only one item but several,” said Councilman Chaim Deutsch (D–Sheepshead Bay). “A criminal is an opportunist. When they have an opportunity, that is when they come into a crime.”
But Deutsch said he is also concerned that the fee is regressive because even though individuals enrolled in the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program and the supplemental nutrition program for Women, Infants, and Children will be exempt from the fee, senior citizens on fixed incomes and families with limited budgets will still have to pay the fee.
The bill would require the Department of Sanitation to hire contractors to distribute reusable bags, and to prioritize distribution to individuals with yearly incomes up to $23,340 and families of four with incomes $47,700 or below.
One local said that the bag fee is the only way to ween people off plastic bags, but admitted that many of the old-timers she knows will resent it.
“We know we have to get rid of the plastic — there is no other way that you’re going to force people’s hands,” said Ann Kirshner, who lives in Bergen Beach and carries a reusable tote bag. “But you’re going to have some very pissed off old ladies.”
