Anyone who has been to New York on vacation and stopped in a supermarket will surely know it: plastic bags abound in those parts. Once you arrive at the checkout, you will be inundated with envelopes, even if the products purchased are a couple. Always better, when in doubt, to use a pair inside each other, to prevent them from breaking. Now this habit, writes the US correspondent of the newspaper Les Echoscould change radically.
After a failed attempt last year, New York's greenest city councilmen are back in action and are proposing to put a 10-cent tax on plastic and paper bags.
"The bags clog drains and pipes, causing flooding, and pollute our beaches," explains Margaret Chin, one of the biggest supporters of the measure. According to municipal statistics, the American city spends $10 million each year to landfill 5,2 billion bags used by residents.
If the tax is enacted, New York will join a group of other cities that have taken similar or even more drastic steps. Since 2009, Washington has banned traditional plastic bags and imposed a 5-cent tax on all other single-use bags (paper ones, for example). Since January, large Los Angeles supermarkets can no longer offer plastic bags and are forced to charge 10 cents each for paper bags. The same rule will take effect on July XNUMXst for smaller shops as well.
The issue is increasingly relevant in the United States. The four counties that make up the Hawaiian islands have banned not only plastic bags, but also paper bags that are not at least 40% recyclable. California, Massachusetts and the state of Washington are considering a ban.
The problem is that any effort in this direction runs counter to the plastic industry lobby. Lee Califf, president of the American Progressive Bag Alliance, which represents the producers of plastic bags, lashed out against the New York provision: "This new rule increases the already high cost of food for New Yorkers". The industry is also talking about the potential for job losses if the use of plastic bags drops.
