By Zachary Schwartz
In April 2019, New York State governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced a legislation banning single-use plastic bags in New York. This ban took effect on March 1st, but businesses that violate this ban will not be penalized until April 1st, says NBC New York.
Many New Yorkers have had different reactions to the ban. A Target shopper, Richie Alvarez, was charged extra for a plastic bag, as Kevin Sheehan, C.J. Sullivan and Jorge Fitz-Gibbon of the New York Post explain, “I was totally shocked . . . This is what our world is coming to. Yeah, they charged me extra for the bag. That’s why I only took one. It would normally be two or three bags” said Alvarez.
Explained by Miranda Bryant of The Guardian, the Director of the New York City Mayor’s Office of Sustainability Mark Chambers said, “The paper bag fee coupled with the bag ban encourages a deeper culture shift in New York City towards reusable habits. This is a critical shift we need to cultivate if we are to meet our zero waste goals.”
As this ban can better our environment, many are also angry it will make jobs a lot harder. California and Oregon also have a plastic ban and New York is the third state to implement the ban.
