New York's Plastic Bag Ban Finally Taking Effect

A new bag waste reduction law that took effect in New York state March 1 is only now to be enforced — starting Monday.

For one thing, the state faced a lawsuit in New York Supreme Court. Second, the coronavirus outbreak started, leading to a total business shutdown before the end of March. With cases, hospitalizations and deaths skyrocketing, grocery store check-out clerks weren't handling other people's old bags.

Recently the court ruled the state could proceed after giving 30 days notice. Since then the Department of Environmental Conservation has been reaching out to grocery stores, retailers, and others, to provide notice of the start of enforcement and answer questions.

"The Court's decision is a victory and a vindication of New York State's efforts to end the scourge of single-use plastic bags and a direct rebuke to the plastic bag manufacturers who tried to stop the law and DEC's regulations to implement it," DEC Commissioner Basil Segos said in an announcement Friday. "As we have for many months, DEC is encouraging New Yorkers to make the switch to reusable bags whenever and wherever they shop and to use common-sense precautions to keep reusable bags clean. The Court has ruled and DEC will begin to enforce the ban on October 19th. It's time to BYOBagNY."

But American Recyclable Plastic Bag Alliance Director Zachary Taylor said the rules are still confusing. In an appearance Monday on ABC News 10 in Albany, he said the DEC's updated regulations have prompted new court filings because they could be read to mean any plastic bag including the portable reusable ones sold by grocery stores.

Now New Yorkers use an estimated 23 billion plastic bags annually, and roughly 85 percent of them end up in landfills, recycling machines, waterways, and streets, the DEC says.

"Standard reusable cotton grocery bags must be reused 131 times 'to ensure that they have lower global warming potential than' a plastic bag used only once," says the Bag Alliance.

As for the coronavirus, Greenpeace released a statement signed by a long list of science and medical experts that concluded reusable bags are safe when proper hygiene is used. Certainly, customers should handle their own reusable items when going to shops and stores.

"The risk of infection by the virus from food products, food packaging, or bags is thought to be very low," says the Centers for Disease Control. "Currently, no cases of COVID-19have been identified where infection was thought to have occurred by touching food, food packaging, or shopping bags."

Wash your hands. Use hand sanitizer when you can't.