City Councilmembers are seeking to reduce the use of paper and plastic bags by compelling grocery and retail stores throughout New York City to charge customers 10 cents per bag.
Unlike a prior attempt to both protect the environment and raise revenue for the city — through a failed 6-cent bag tax proposed by Mayor Bloomberg in 2008 — the surcharge would stay in the pockets of retailers, according to legislation set to be introduced in the Council on Thursday.
Only those who pay for groceries with food stamps would be exempt from the surcharge, which officials emphasized is a “fee” rather than a “tax.”
A tax proposal would require approval from Albany lawmakers.
Restaurants would be exempt from the measure – which currently has eight co-sponsors in the City Council – while street vendors would not.
“We have found a way that we are very confident will achieve at least 60 percent reduction in bag waste and still work for our small businesses, our grocery stores and our neighborhood retailers,” the bill’s lead sponsor, City Councilmember Brad Lander (D-Brooklyn), said outside City Hall this morning. “The nice thing about this charge is you can avoid it entirely if you bring your reusable bags.”
He said the bid emulates similar efforts in Seattle, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington D.C. that have led to reductions in bag waste of between 60 and 95 percent.
Officials said the goal was to hit at least the 60 percent mark here while saving on a good chunk of the $10 million the city spends annually to ship used bags to out-of-state landfills.
City Council Speaker and Mayoral hopeful Christine Quinn, who came out in 2009 against Bloomberg’s bag tax proposal, declined to comment at a campaign event in Greenwich Village this morning – saying she had yet to see the legislation.
Advocates said the average New Yorker uses 300 to 600 plastic bags per year – for a total of 5.2 billion bags.
Additional reporting by Beth Defalco