New York
Consumerist mecca New York targets its throwaway culture this weekend with a ban on single-use plastic bags that has been years in the making and is still rare in America. New Yorkers like to see themselves at the forefront of efforts to save the environment but are used to receiving groceries in free plastic bags, often doubled up to ensure sturdiness. On Sunday, that will change when New York becomes only the third US state to outlaw the non-biodegradable sacks blamed for choking rivers, littering neighborhoods and suffocating wildlife. Environmental activists welcome the new law but caution that exemptions will weaken its effect, while some small businesses worry the ban might negatively impact their profits. At the Westside Market in Manhattan, 66-year-old Janice Vrana, who says she has been shopping with a reusable cloth bag for a decade, is delighted “pervasive” plastic sacks are being banished. “You could drive over them 500 times with a Mack Truck and they probably wouldn’t break down. Whatever little I can do, I do,” she told AFP. Janine Franciosa, a 38-year-old who works in advertising, said it is great people are becoming more aware of how their “everyday purchases are affecting the environment.” But not everyone is happy. Westside Market manager Ian Joskowitz, 52, told AFP some customers were “upset” because they use free plastic bags as garbage bags. Fines – New York uses some 23 billion plastic bags every year, according to the state government. —APP
