HomeOPINIONNew York State Assembly Majority Bans Plastic Bags

New York State Assembly Majority Bans Plastic Bags

By Elizabeth Liu
Staff Writer

On Mar. 31, the New York State Assembly Majority passed legislation that would cause plastic bags to become illegal in the state of New York. According to an official press release, the purpose of banning plastic bags is to “protect New York’s waterways and the environment by banning plastic carryout bags.”

The press release included a direct quote from the New York State Assembly Speaker Heastie, who is the leader of the Democratic party. “The Assembly Majority knows that the New York State must lead the way in reducing plastic pollution.”

New York is set to the second state to ban single-use plastic bags.

“The convenience of plastic bags is simply not worth the environmental impact. By reducing the state’s usage, we will see less litter in our communities and less plastic pollution in our waterways.”

As a result of this ban, New York State are enforcing a five cent fee in cities and counties throughout the state. This means that if they choose to participate in the program, that 40 percent of the fee will be distributed to the county or city for the purchase of reusable bags, and then the rest of the 60 percent will go to the Environmental Protection Fund, according to the same press release.

According to the same press release, in New York State, plastic bags are banned in effect in the year of 2021. It is stated that there will be a five cent fee in cities and counties across New York. Other nearby cities do this as well, and that includes Long Island, which has the current five cent fee implemented in places such as grocery stores and gas stations. Purchases being made through programs such as SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), or the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) food and nutrition service will be exempt from any paper carryout bag fee, according to the same source.

The usage of plastic is a heated, debate topic that is not a new one to in both state and international legislative making bodies. According to a tweet that was published by the European Union on April 2, it said the following: “The European Union will ban single-use plastic consumer items like plates, cutlery, and straws as of 2021 to help clean up oceans.”

There seems to be a national movement of the amount of plastic that people produce on a daily basis. Plastic bags are harmful to the environment in the sense that they are hard to get rid of. There have been movements across the globe that have gone unnoticed both in and outside of the United States.

Plastic bags have been a heated topic for a very long time. The particular reasoning behind this is because of the fact that they are not easily broken down into waste. This means that plastic bags that are not properly recycled and can have a long lasting effect on the environment, such as ending up in the world’s oceans and creating a dangerous hazard for the world’s wildlife. According to biologicaldiversity.org, 1000,000 marine animals are killed by plastic annually.

While plastic is not good for the environment, and political reform for environmental policy and to create change in the world needs to be made,

It’s unknown if a fee of 40 cents will definitely implement change in New York State when it comes to using plastic. There seems to be loopholes to this legislation, especially since the implementation of the legislation that was passed is up to the cities and the counties.

It seems as if cities and counties could have the option of not paying the fee and not partaking in the program, therefore the reasoning behind of why the Plastic Ban is not effective.

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