New York – Local elected officials acted quickly in responding negatively to a Tuesday announcement by City Council members Brad Lander and Margaret Chin that they have introduced legislation proposing a 10-cent charge to customers for plastic shopping bags.
Subscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
Both State Senator Simcha Felder and Assemblyman Dov Hikind issued statements Tuesday afternoon denouncing the proposal, saying it would amount to nothing more than another unnecessary burden on already struggling New Yorkers.
“I am completely opposed to the legislation introduced by Council members Chin and Lander requiring retail and grocery stores to charge at least 10 cents for paper and plastic bags at retail and grocery stores,” said Senator Simcha Felder (D-Brooklyn).
“New Yorkers cannot afford the basics,” Felder continued. “And now the City Council is essentially telling the average New Yorker whose in trouble, ‘not only are you suffering, but we’re really going to stomp on your head by charging you 10 cents extra per bag.’ This is nothing more than a tax and an attempt to make money. People are already overtaxed and overburdened. While the City Council is busy seeing green, New Yorkers will be seeing red. This scheme hearkens back to 2008 when Mayor Bloomberg wanted to charge six cents for the use of plastic bags. Back then, I took on the City’s budget director at a hearing on that proposal as well. It was a tax five years ago and it’s still a tax today.”
Assemblyman Hikind said, “We don’t need to impose on people and create more difficulty for struggling New Yorkers. It is the wrong place and the wrong time for this initiative. Doesn’t the City have anything else to worry about? This proposal is outrageous. The City should stop telling New Yorkers what’s good for them and let people make their own decisions.”
In their announcement earlier Tuesday, Lander and Chin said the initiative would help address environmental issues by encouraging New Yorkers to use bags they have already have at home.
we need plastic bags to cover hats and shtreimels when it rains
They tax us so much! Do we need another ancillary tax?
Studies have found that those reusable bags have mold problems. Bad for people and the environment. What do you think will happen when you reuse a bag with a few day old milk drops in it? Money maker, yes! Tikun Haolam, no!
Are the flimsy black ones going to cost the same as the high quality ones used by Glatt Mart and Pomegranate?
Can we bring the used bags to City Council chambers to get the 10 cents back?
Who gets the money?
Do you know what plastic does to the earth. It never disintegrates. It stays in the earth and pollutes the ground. It’s about time someone is stepping up to save the earth from these plastic demons.
Let them go back to the old brown bags.
come on! What’s next! Are they going to tell us how many tissues we’re allowed to use for each blow? Why not? For each additional tissue you gotta pay a tax. Yes. Have a special police watch over us.
This is no different than a tax on cigarettes or gasoline. Its intentionally high to get people to change their habits.
The issue isn’t the 10c, its the continued intrusion in giving people the right to make their own choices.
We should ban plastic bags altogether!!!
Midrash Kohelet (Ecclesiastes) Rabbah 7:20-
Upon creating the first human beings, God guided them around the Garden of Eden, saying; ‘Look at my creations! See how beautiful and perfect they are! I created everything for you. Make sure you don’t ruin or destroy My world. If you do, there will be no one after you to fix it.’
When is the orthodox community going to start having a little responsibility for our planet Gd gave us?! Plus, they can save the money buy buying one time bags that last a lifetime! Here are some statistics…..
Nearly every piece of plastic EVER made still exists today.
A plastic milk jug takes 1 million years to decompose
A plastic cup can take 50 – 80 years to decompose.
Plastic bags and other plastic garbage thrown into the ocean kill as many as 1 million sea creatures every year
Today, Americans generate 10.5 million tons of plastic waste a year but recycle only 5% of it, 50% gets dumped into landfills, and the rest eventually goes out to shore
An estimated 14 billion pounds of trash, much of it plastic is dumped in the world’s oceans every year.
I have the reusable bags and they hold much more than the plastic bags. Put them through the washing machine once a week. It’s also convenient to save packing boxes (if you order merchandise from Amazon, etc.) and load your groceries in the boxes.
Stores can sell shopping bags as a regular item for 1 cent a bag instead of 10 cents at the register
What will costco do they don’t give bags? Will they start charging for the wagon?
Wherever plastic bags have been replaced by reusable ones, two things happen. There’s an increase in food poisoning, since very few people bother washing the bags. And there’s a big increase in shoplifting, since everyone has where to hide what they steal.
Plastic bags are useful.Look online at plarning and other things people make out of plastic bags. Maybe the city give loans to people to make businesses to do plarning. Cloth bags carry bacteria while plastic disposable tend to have little potential for bacterial contamination.
this bill cannot be passed. the second it goes in-front of the rules committee, it will be quashed, if the members have any shred of pride in their job. a government may not force commerce. the 10 cents stays supposedly with the store owner. either the govt is forcing commerce, that i must but a bag from the shopkeeper, or they are charging a tax not for the govt, in which case its an illegal tax. this bill was written my mental midgets.
if yidden are so concerned with the environment then maybe stop driving 2 minivans and for tiny trips a block away. add parking circling and the carbon footprint is huge!
Almost every item you buy in a Department store or an Electronic store is either wrapped or sealed in plastic. Do they want to tax that too? Why not? Have China pay for every unit they sell to NYC.
It is not a tax. The store is required to sell the bags for ten cents. They keep the money. If the store tries to give away the bags, they can be fined.
Seems like a great idea.
Is this tax going to be on all plastic bags, or only on the bags 16 ounce and above.