Suffolk lawmakers passed a “bring your own bag” law Wednesday, imposing a 5-cent fee on disposable plastic and paper bags.
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In addition to the fee, a companion education bill, which also passed on Wednesday, will ensure that residents and businesses are prepared to switch to reusable bags when the fee goes into effect on January 1, 2018 and will create a task force to evaluate the effectiveness of the fee in reducing single use bag use.
Environmentalists from the Cornell Cooperative Extension in Riverhead helped with the planning. Specifically, the bags are said to litter coastlines and water and can have an adverse effect on local wildlife. “Once it goes into effect, what we’re also looking to do is to make sure that there are plenty of free reusable bags that people can have access to”.
The law will apply to clothing, grocery, and convenience stores and is an attempt to push consumers toward the use of reusable bags, like those made of canvas or recycled fibers. Plastic bags are a mistake of the past, reusable bags are the solution for our future. We don’t need the plastic bags and you don’t need to pay the fee.
Legislator William Spencer says he’s been working on the bill for six months and says it’s time for those one-time use bags to go, with some exceptions.
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New York City passed similar legislation earlier this year, but its start date was pushed back to February.
