New York Tries to Fight Its Way Out of a Plastic Bag
Tuesday, December 09, 2014
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Prospect Heights resident Gloria Miles, 58, walks her plastic bags home from the laundromat. (Julia Longoria/WNYC)
For just a couple of wispy sheets with holes for handles, plastic bags incite quite a bit of emotion among New Yorkers.
When the City Council held a public hearing on a bill imposing a 10-cent fee on plastic grocery bags, it lasted from 1 p.m. well into the evening. At that hearing, and in interviews since then, some people said the 10-cent fee is just what they need to remember to bring their reusable cloth bag to the grocery store. Others see it as yet another burden on their budget.
New Yorkers use an average of 3.2 plastic bags per day, according to data from the city's sanitation department. Since there's not a large market for recycled plastic bags, the city just lugs them to the dump instead, spending $12.5 million every year.
Building superintendent Jesus "Tito" Sandoval said many New Yorkers don't realize plastic bags are not recyclable. Sandoval, who works in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, knows. He sees the evidence in the plastic bags that show up in his tenants' recycling bins every day. If he doesn't fish those bags out and put them into the trash, they end up snagging on the city's recycling machines, causing delays. Sandoval said a 10-cent fee would help educate stubborn New Yorkers that their waste builds up.
But longtime resident Gloria Miles, walking home one recent morning from the laundromat around the corner from Sandoval's building, said 10 cents is too much.
"This is New York City," she said. "They know how to make a dollar."
