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."
Miles says she doesn't just throw her bags away; she re-uses them to double-bag her trash in order to prevent sidewalk spills on trash night and avoid getting tickets from city inspectors. With a 10-cent fee, she said, she would need to buy plastic bags to perform that function.
The City Council bill, however, would not institute an all-out ban on bags, as some California cities have done. And consumers would not need to pay 10 cents for plastic bags from restaurant deliveries, liquor stores and emergency food providers. Bags used to carry produce, meat and prescription drugs would also be exempt. Food stamp recipients would not be charged for any bags at all.
Victoria Brown, an immigrant from Trinidad, said she would welcome the fee. She said she feels a pang of guilt every time she goes to throw a bag away.
"Charge me ten cents," she pleaded. She said it would remind her to finally bring those cloth bags she always leaves at home, hanging on her door.
Bag fees in other cities, especially one in San Jose, California, have shown some success. In Argentina, charges prompted changes in behavior and attitudes among grocery store-goers, according to one study. Ireland seems to have solved its bag problem with a 33-cent tax.
Washington, D.C., instituted a 5-cent tax five years ago. A survey found grocery store owners there said they were giving out fewer plastic bags. But revenues from the tax suggest results are still inconclusive.
A vote on the New York bill has not been scheduled, and the likelihood of passing is unclear. But according to the latest version, store owners would collect the 10-cent fee themselves, instead of giving it to the city. Not all store owners said they would charge -- though those that don't charge the ten cents risk a fine from the city.
"The way we are with our customers we probably won't," said Shaddy Widdy, the owner of a Met Foods grocery store also in Prospect Heights. "We'd take the hit"