It's Been Five Years Since New York Banned Single-Use Plastic Bags. They're Still Floating Around.
At three of his stores, he has stopped handing out plastic bags altogether, charging customers a 25-cent fee for a reusable bag, which are more expensive for him to stock up on. But at the other two bodegas, in low-income neighborhoods, Mr. Marte hands out plastic bags to avoid passing on the cost of a more expensive reusable bag to residents. Still, he warns them that he'll soon phase out plastic altogether.
Some customers have started to bring their own bags, he said, but it's 'little by little.'
New York State's ban in 2020 was part of an effort to curb litter and minimize greenhouse emissions caused by plastic bag production. Mr. Marte, who is also president of the Bodega and Small Business Group in New York, said compliance with the ban had been mixed among the group's more than 2,000 members, which include corner stores, restaurants, barber shops and beauty salons. Many business owners don't want to charge their customers more by handing out the comparatively expensive reusable bags. Still, the number of plastic bags in circulation has 'reduced a lot,' he said.
When the ban was announced, state officials said New Yorkers used 23 billion plastic bags each year, 85 percent of which ended up in landfills, recycling machines, waterways and streets. While the state has not collected comprehensive data on how many fewer plastic bags have been used since the ban took effect, a study by the New York City Department of Sanitation found that the prevalence of plastic shopping bags in the waste stream fell 68 percent from 2017 to 2023.
The Bag Waste Reduction Act took effect on March 1, 2020 — exactly five years ago — though the coronavirus pandemic and a lawsuit from plastic bag manufacturers delayed its enforcement for months.
Retailers receive a warning before being slapped with a $250 fine if they violate the law again, and a $500 fine for every violation thereafter.
Despite the penalties, plastic bags are still a common sight on the streets of New York City. In part, that's because the rule, as it's currently written, includes several exceptions: Bags used to package bulk items, for example, as well as those provided by pharmacies to carry prescription drugs, are excluded. Restaurants are also exempt.
Below, a visual tour of all the places plastic bags still show up in the city.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Post
20 hours ago
- New York Post
NYC Mayor Adams vows to use AI, blockchain tech to boost services if re-elected
Welcome to Gotham 2.0. Mayor Eric Adams said he plans to rely much more on artificial intelligence to assist New Yorkers if he's re-elected to a second term. 'We're gonna run a smarter city,' he told The Post Thursday during an interview at Gracie Mansion. Advertisement 'I'm talking about having an opportunity now to use everything from artificial intelligence to blockchain, new technology that's out there that could make our city smarter, so that our working class people can get the proper delivery of services.' One example being explored is using blockchain technology to speed up the process for providing copies of birth and death certificates to the public, the Mayor's Office said. Another is using AI to quickly translate English to other languages when needed, such as helping authorities better assist victims when they use voice-controlled drones during search-and-rescue missions and other emergencies. Mayor Eric Adams said he plans to rely much more on artificial intelligence and blockchain technology to assist New Yorkers if he's re-elected to a second term. J.C. Rice Advertisement 'We're gonna run a smarter city,' Adams told The Post Thursday during an interview at Gracie Mansion. Juli M. – Adams has embraced the tech industry and digital currency since becoming mayor in 2022, as he's pledged to help make NYC the crypto capital of the world. He put his money where his mouth early on by agreeing to take his first three paychecks in bitcoin. Adams, who earns $258,750 a year as mayor, reported the value of the bitcoin ranging from $5,000 to nearly $55,000 in his financial disclosure statement for 2024 filed with the NYC Conflicts of Interest Board.
New York Post
20 hours ago
- New York Post
AOC's $15.4M campaign war chest is biggest in US House, with most donations coming from outside her NYC district
Lefty 'Squad' member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has hauled in more campaign dollars than anyone else in the House this year — an eye-popping $15.4 million, new Federal Election Commission filings show, as she targets donors outside the Big Apple and weighs a run for higher office. The progressive firebrand raised $5.8 million in the second quarter, following a eye-watering $9.6 million she raked in during the first quarter — her second most profitable quarter on record, according to her FEC records. 'In Q2, AOC raised $5.8m from over 161,000 individual donors and an average donation of just $17,' her campaign manager Oliver Hidalgo-Wohlleben said on X. 4 AOC is the top fundraiser in the House so far in 2025, with a $15.4 million campaign war chest. Jack Forbes / NY Post Design But instead of spending big in her own backyard, the self-proclaimed 'Bronx girl' is blowing $3.6 million on Facebook and Instagram ads which barely target New Yorkers, a review of campaign expenditures shows. One of her latest ad blitzes, dropped Wednesday and packed with clips from her and socialist pal Bernie's' 'Fighting the Oligarchy' tour attacking the Trump administration, was seen by more people in California than her home state, Meta data show. Her massive haul could indicate she's positioning herself for a Senate or White House run in 2028. 'She is trading on her national profile to go where the dollars are,' Jacob Neiheisel, political communication expert at the University of Buffalo, told The Post. 'It's become incredibly easy to pull dollars from all across the country. . . . And there's a lot of money in SoCal,' he added. 4 One of AOC's Facebook ads launched this week targeted California, Texas, Florida, Michigan and Illinois, among other states. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez/ Facebook A jaw-dropping 72% of AOC's donations have come from outside her home district in Queens and the Bronx — and well beyond the Empire State. Some of her biggest individual donors are coming from California, Massachusetts and Maine, where dozens forked over the maximum allowed contribution of $3,500. Only 12% of those top donors were in New York. She pulled in $4.3 million this year from her home state, with everything else coming from outside. 4 AOC continues to tour across the country. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez/ Facebook 4 One of AOC's current Facebook ads. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez/ Facebook 'It's not unusual that a candidate, especially someone like AOC, would buy media outside of their home district – but not any politician can do it,' said Steve Caplan, a political advertising expert at the University of Southern California. 'It's something that is fairly typical of high profile, national level politicians, and she is certainly that.' 'The notion that this is somehow setting the stage for either a national or a statewide run . . . I think that's quite likely,' he added.
Atlantic
20 hours ago
- Atlantic
Why Zohran Mamdani Is Unlikely to Make Groceries Cheaper
Can the city of New York sell groceries more cheaply than the private sector? The mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani thinks so. He wants to start five city-owned stores that will be 'focused on keeping prices low' rather than making a profit—what he calls a 'public option' for groceries. His proposal calls for opening stores on city land so that they can forgo paying rent or property taxes. Skeptics have focused on economic obstacles to the plan. Grocers have industry expertise that New York City lacks; they benefit from scale; and they run on thin profit margins, estimated at just 1 to 3 percent, leaving little room for additional savings. Less discussed, though no less formidable, is a political obstacle for Mamdani: The self-described democratic socialist's promise to lower grocery prices and, more generally, 'lower the cost of living for working class New Yorkers' will be undermined by other policies that he or his coalition favors that would raise costs. No one should trust that 'there's far more efficiency to be had in our public sector,' as he says of his grocery-store proposal, until he explains how he would resolve those conflicts. Mamdani's desire to reduce grocery prices for New Yorkers is undercut most glaringly by the labor policies that he champions. Labor is the largest fixed cost for grocery stores. Right now grocery-store chains with lots of New York locations, such as Stop & Shop and Key Food, advertise entry-level positions at or near the city's minimum wage of $16.50 an hour. Mamdani has proposed to almost double the minimum wage in New York City to $30 an hour by 2030; after that, additional increases would be indexed to inflation or productivity growth, whichever is higher. Perhaps existing grocery workers are underpaid; perhaps workers at city-run stores should make $30 an hour too. Yet a wage increase would all but guarantee more expensive groceries. Voters deserve to know whether he'll prioritize cheaper groceries or better-paid workers. (I wrote to Mamdani's campaign about this trade-off, and others noted below, but got no reply.) In the New York State assembly, Mamdani has co-sponsored legislation to expand family-leave benefits so that they extend to workers who have an abortion, a miscarriage, or a stillbirth. The official platform of the Democratic Socialists of America, which endorsed Mamdani, calls for 'a four-day, 32-hour work week with no reduction in wages or benefits' for all workers. Unions, another source of Mamdani support, regularly lobby for more generous worker benefits. Extending such benefits to grocery-store employees would raise costs that, again, usually get passed on to consumers. Perhaps Mamdani intends to break with his own past stances and members of his coalition, in keeping with his goal of focusing on low prices. But if that's a path that he intends to take, he hasn't said so. City-run grocery stores would purchase massive amounts of food and other consumer goods from wholesalers. New York City already prioritizes goals other than cost-cutting when it procures food for municipal purposes; it signed a pledge in 2021 to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions associated with food that it serves, and Mayor Eric Adams signed executive orders in 2022 that committed the city to considering 'local economies, environmental sustainability, valued workforce, animal welfare, and nutrition' in its food procurement. Such initiatives inevitably raise costs. Mamdani could favor exempting city-run groceries from these kinds of obligations. But would he? Batul Hassan, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America steering committee and a supporter of Mamdani, co-authored an article arguing that city-run stores should procure food from vendors that prioritize a whole host of goods: 'worker dignity and safety, animal welfare, community economic benefit and local sourcing, impacts to the environment, and health and nutrition, including emphasizing culturally appropriate, well-balanced and plant-based diets,' in addition to 'suppliers from marginalized backgrounds and non-corporate supply chains, including small, diversified family farms, immigrants and people of color, new and emerging consumer brands, and farmer and employee owned cooperatives.' If one milk brand is cheaper but has much bigger environmental externalities or is owned by a large corporation, will a city-run store carry it or a pricier but greener, smaller brand? Mamdani has said in the past that he supports the BDS (boycott, divestment, sanctions) movement, which advocates for boycotting products from Israel. That probably wouldn't raise costs much by itself. And Mamdani told Politico in April that BDS wouldn't be his focus as mayor. But a general practice of avoiding goods because of their national origin, or a labor dispute between a supplier and its workers, or any number of other controversies, could raise costs. When asked about BDS in the Politico interview, Mamdani also said, 'We have to use every tool that is at people's disposal to ensure that equality is not simply a hope, but a reality.' Would Mamdani prioritize low prices in all cases or sometimes prioritize the power of boycotts or related pressure tactics to effect social change? Again, he should clarify how he would resolve such trade-offs. Finally, shoplifting has surged in New York in recent years. Many privately owned grocery stores hire security guards, use video surveillance, call police on shoplifters, and urge that shoplifters be prosecuted. Democratic socialists generally favor less policing and surveilling. If the security strategy that's best for the bottom line comes into conflict with progressive values, what will Mamdani prioritize? This problem isn't unique to Mamdani. Officials in progressive jurisdictions across the country have added to the cost of public-sector initiatives by imposing what The New York Times 's Ezra Klein has characterized as an 'avalanche of well-meaning rules and standards.' For example, many progressives say they want to fund affordable housing, but rather than focus on minimizing costs per unit to house as many people as possible, they mandate other goals, such as giving locals a lengthy process for comment, prioritizing bids from small or minority-owned businesses, requiring union labor, and instituting project reviews to meet the needs of people with disabilities. Each extra step relates to a real good. But once you add them up, affordability is no longer possible, and fewer people end up housed. Policies that raise costs are not necessarily morally or practically inferior to policies that lower costs; low prices are one good among many. But if the whole point of city-owned grocery stores is to offer lower prices, Mamdani will likely need to jettison other goods that he and his supporters value, and be willing to withstand political pressure from allies. Voters deserve to know how Mamdani will resolve the conflicts that will inevitably arise. So far, he isn't saying.
