The ban, which is expected to be part of the state’s budget bills that are slated to be passed by Monday, would forbid stores to provide customers with single-use plastic bags, which are nonbiodegradable and have been blamed for everything from causing gruesome wildlife deaths to thwarting recycling efforts.
The plan, proposed a year ago by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, would be the second statewide ban, after California, which banned bags in 2016. Hawaii also effectively has a ban in place, since all the state’s counties bar such single-use bags.
New York’s ban, which would begin next March, would have a number of carve outs, including food takeout bags used by restaurants, bags used to wrap deli or meat counter products, and bags for bulk items. Newspaper bags would also be exempted, as would garment bags.
The plan would have an additional element allowing counties to opt in to a 5-cent fee on paper bags, revenue that would then be used for the state’s Environmental Protection Fund as well as a separate fund to buy reusable bags for consumers.
Supporters said that such a two-pronged approach — paper and plastic — was necessary not only to limit the flow of litter into the state’s streets, streams and oceanfront, but also to minimize the greenhouse-gas emissions caused by their production.
“There was a real understanding that there should be a ban on plastic,” said Todd Kaminsky, a Democratic state senator from Nassau County, who is the chairman of the environmental conservation committee. “And that if people go to paper rather than reusables, we are not that better off.”
A collection of cities and other localities have imposed fees on single-use carryout plastic bags, including Suffolk County, where such a plan led to a sharp reduction in their use.
Such a disincentive is also the goal of the state plan, said Kaminsky, whose hometown, Long Beach, New York, has such a program.
“I think we’ll look back in a few years,” he said. “And people will wonder why we didn’t do this sooner.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.