Do New Yorkers Use Nearly 3 Billion Plastic Bags Per Year?

It's been months since we last heard about Bloomberg's plastic bag tax plan, which was officially proposed last week—and since November the fee has gone down one cent (from 6 to 5 pennies). As the mayor seeks approval from Albany, CityRoom takes a closer look at some questionable figures estimating just how many plastic bags we use in the city.

Bloomberg's 59-page financial summary plan (PDF) states the projected revenue from the fees is $84 million—an estimated 2.88 billion (out of the 500 billion to 1 trillion used worldwide annually) new plastic bags used by New Yorkers per year, or as CityRoom further breaks it down "one bag for every man, woman and child in New York City every single day of the year." The site notes that's "a sharp increase from the last figure floated, just $16 million." While the mayor's office says that "certainly could be [wrong]," they say the figure has gone up because the fee would now also apply beyond bodegas, hitting department stores, restaurants and any other retailer doling out new plastic bags. The sweeping move was allegedly made when the Department of Sanitation “went back and looked at the waste stream more closely and found that there are far more plastic bags used in the city than we first thought.”

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By Jen Carlson in News on February 2, 2009 3:28 PM

Comments [rss]

robingee

Did ides or Taliban write the slogan on that bag?

NannyState

I just dump all my old batteries and waste motor oil without those environmentally harmful plastic bags.

hungrycity

What is up with you people and rudely dumping unwanted bags on counters?

Use your big mouths to simply say "I don't need a bag" as soon as you place your junk on the counter. It works for me every time, and I've never gotten a dirty look for it.

ncm

Exactly. Same here.

xtonybaloneyx

The truth.. everyone has used the fucking bags at one time or another for a variety of reason. Do I want to pay tax on them? Absolutely not, and you know what else is shit? That I go to plenty of places where I dont want a bag and they still give it to me and I dont want it. I leave it and they give me a dirty look and next time Im in they recognize me and dont give me a bag and that will be the occasion where I will need one.

Plus once they tax us for bags and shit they will never take it away, even if bags stop being produced in high demand.

balumbum

If anyone wants FREE cloth reusable bags made from recycled clothes and fabric come to the Hawthorne Valley Farm stand on Wednesdays and Saturdays on the south east corner of Union Square. My friend and I are making the bags and giving them out there to cut down on the amount of plastic bags we hand out.

TKaisen

It's going to be so cool when we have to wait more time in line so the cashier can count up all the bags after packing the groceries. before being able to run a card. Everyone in this town has a history of being so patient.

schematic

Completely support this initiative. Not because it will help the budget shortfall, but because it will do exactly what consumption taxes are supposed to do: provide a price signal to consumers to reduce activity that is not in society's best interests. Plastic bags are a blight on the city.

Spirit of 76

Geez. Just how much garbage do you people generate that you can reuse "a little more than a bag a day" plus likewise for your wife? And who's talking about banning the bags? They're talking about taxing it. A penny for a shopping bag or a few pennies for a garbage bag, what's the difference? I just can't believe the kneejerk reactions people have around here.

robingee

Are you calling my knee a jerk?? My knee is a SAINT! WHY I OUGHTA...

JacqueMehoff

.05 is too much, yeah, I said it.

make it a penny.

it's all about money with this mayor. he's so out of touch with the non rich people. same with his flat rate taxi fares during the strike.

what does he care, all his groceries are delivered in gold plated shopping carts.

Barbj8

I'd prefer them to go after disposable diapers than plastic bags. At least plastic bags can be reused!

BotanistPrime

I wholly support this tax! If you actually need a bag 5¢ is nothing and it could generate a lot of money for the city. Otherwise it might make people realize that they don't need a plastic bag most of the time.

I'd also like to imagine that money would go to the MTA but I doubt that's how it would go down.

slyseekr

I'd rather restaurants use more eco-friendly food containers and less packaging when ordering to go, or be taxed. I have way too much plastic tupperware in my cupboard.

TKaisen

Gristede's cashiers will double bag two loaves of bread. I can buy that number.

Also, let's keep in mind that most take-out comes in plastic bags. Even if you never use a plastic bag at the supermarket, getting takeout once a week means you use 50 plastic bags.

TKaisen

Not my point. I'm saying that if they're giving the general public 4 plastic bags for 10 items, then the estimate of 2.9 billion plastic bags might not be all that ridiculous.

And, speaking as someone who used to work in a supermarket -- if you take stuff out of the bag and throw the bag back to them, it's going in the garbage. It's much easier to bag out of the rack then it is to pick up loose plastic bags and re-use them. There's a better chance of me re-using it then them.

SP

Same answer to you. Remove the bags you don't want and leave them there.

Tower18

If the damn bodegas wouldn't insist on giving you a bag regardless of how much stuff you purchase, we might save a lot of bags.

SP

Why don't YOU insist on not taking the bag? It's easy. After they bag up your stuff, you take it all out and leave the bags on the counter. Done and done. Take some responsibility instead of blaming others.

Gothampc

The problem here is that Nanny Bloomberg has no idea how the middle class lives. As many have alread said, we reuse plastic bags several times.

I reuse them to take out garbage, I use them to haul my lunch in, I put my wet boots on them, I carry library books in them, I've used them as potholders, and have about 20 other uses for them.

Nanny Bloomberg should stop being such a whiney old woman and work on attracting business to the city.