“In OneNYC, my Administration committed to sending Zero Waste to landfills by 2030 – a bold, necessary and achievable goal in pursuit of a more sustainable New York City. Achieving Zero Waste includes significantly reducing the use of plastic bags, which have long clogged our water system, gotten stuck in our trees and littered our city.
The Council’s legislation strikes the right balance, reducing reliance on single-use bags and incentivizing the use of reusable bags, while safeguarding consumers with some logical exemptions to protect vulnerable New Yorkers. The Department of Sanitation projects that this five cent fee could reduce plastic and paper bag waste by approximately 60 percent, based on the experiences of other cities.
I congratulate the Council on the bill’s passage and look forward to signing it.
Successfully implementing the legislation and dramatically reducing the use of plastic bags will also require close coordination between the City and our local businesses. That’s why I’m so pleased to partner with the Food Industry Alliance and New York Metropolitan Retail Association, representing New York City’s largest retailers and grocery stores, to distribute reusable bags to New Yorkers upon enactment of this legislation.”
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