Lawmakers in New York have agreed on imposing a statewide ban on most types of single-use plastic bags. The ban will be imposed on retail stores; this will been seen a major change for millions of people in New York.
According to The New York Times, this was proposed a year ago by Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, following California's plastic-bag ban in 2016. Now that it imposed, New York is the second statewide ban. The New York Times also add that Hawaii also effectively has a ban in place, since all the state’s counties bar such single-use bags.
The ban goes into effect next March in New York, and it forbids stores to provide customers with single-use plastic-bags. This new ban hopes towards improving recycling efforts, and saving wildlife.
Some exceptions include food takeout bags used by restaurants, bags used to wrap deli or meat counter products and bags for bulk items. In addition, this plan allows counties to opt in to a 5-cent fee on paper bags, revenue that would go to the state’s Environmental Protection Fund as well as a separate fund to buy reusable bags for consumers.
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