Wash your reusable bags regularly and you'll be fine. If you need plastic type bags for cat litter, save your produce bags. If you needed a reason to shop more in the produce section, now you have one.
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This plastic bag ban is an additional sales tax and will hurt people on fixed incomes who now have to spend money on plastic garbage bags.
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No, they can carry old plastic bags or fabric bags.
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The fact that something had to be done about the undeniable problems caused by plastic bags offers a perfect opportunity to reflect on one of life's essential truths: All the world's problems - from plastic in the environment to the current threat of Coronavirus - all these problems began the same way... with someone enthusiastically saying "I have a good idea!"
The planet is currently suffering from all the man-made improvements to the world. We need to think deeply before we act on any "good idea."
It's beginning to look as though the Luddites were truly on to something...
https://emcphd.wordpress.com
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Next the city will be banning toilet paper
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And idiots in my building will throw raw garbage down the chute since there won’t be any more plastic bags for it. Now that will being bugs and rodents
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Yes, I read one self-satisfied comment from someone who uses a metal bucket to collect his garbage, then throws the garbage down the compacter chute, and then proudly writes, "Then I wash the bucket. Problem solved."
Yes -- but who washes the chute?
From old brown-paper bag days, I remember the stuff left in the chute. Brrrr.
Not to say that plastic is good. But I remember the smelly stuff adhering to the chute, and this commenter obviously doesn't.
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From where do you think paper comes? And NYT thanks for the free canine poop bag.
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In California, the question of paper or plastic at the checkout stand is a distant memory. We all survived. It’s great that you all get a starter bag - just remember to bring it with you. I put reusable bags in my purse and we’re off to the races. Leaving them in the car works but you have to remember to bring them. It’s a behavior modification that will eventually become habit-forming in a very good way.
Tip: Go to your local travel store and get some attractive reusable bags that allow enough space in the handle for you to lift onto your shoulder. The better quality bags can actually hold a lot of weight.
Good for you, New York!
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I live in Italy where the small bags have been made from recyclable materials such as maize for years. It is the law. However one can buy those huge plastic reusable bags for supermarket shopping and mine are almost ten years old and still going strong.
My son has been in Miami since October and when he goes to the supermarket, items are put in small plastic bags and then at the check-out all the smaller plastic bags are put into one bigger plastic bag. SHAME! However, he has been doing the shopping through Whole Foods and Amazon Prime and it seems that the food delivery is done sustainable with paper. I've seen the photos that Amazon sends also to me given that our accounts are linked.
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A day to celebrate the soundtrack from the movie that meant "Plastics" to a generation
Tune of “The Sounds of Silence” (from "The Graduate")
Hello, plastic, my old friend
It seems an era has to end.
But though restrictions seem a little weird
In this new era that we once had feared
The exemptions make the effort not that rough
So hang tough
They've handed down their guidance
Looks like the rules will not apply
To healthy produce that we buy
And when our food's uncooked or prepared
And to prescription drugs, they're also spared.
And when the papers that bring us the daily scoop
Hit our stoop.
They've handed down their guidance
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@Freddie Hi Freddie, it's Anne from Rome from the Metropolitan Diary! Great rift on a great song!
lots of love from the Eternal City, not yet on lock down from the coronovirus!!!
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@anne - Hi, see you in the Diary comments tomorrow! I said somewhere else that we could be grateful that no one did "My Corona" to "My Sharona." Then, it was pointed out to me that 8,000+ people on the net had already done that parody. (It's never too soon for laughing at anything in the internet era. Plastic bans seem like a small thing when we're talking about who gets to wear a mask and who doesn't.)
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What to know about the plastic bag ban? It's already driving my boyfriend crazy, and after years of him ribbing me & fussing over my reusable shopping bags I am LOVING IT.
I also think, small though it may be, it's a good step for NY.
I do wonder what the deal is with plastic produce bags though...aren't they single use? what's the plan to replace them? Fruits & vegetables can't count as sliced or prepared foods.
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lug 2 2liter Diet Cokes home from the bodega in a paper bag? Hello Amazon goodbye bodega.
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I took the Zero Waste Pledge and got a free reusable bag from the city's Department of Sanitation. You can do it here:
https://materials.bwprronline.org/webform/become-part-solution-pledge-zero-waste
"You can take the Zero Waste Pledge and receive a free reusable bag.
You will need to provide your contact information as well.
What Can You Pledge
If you take the Zero Waste Pledge, you need to indicate what you will do to honor the pledge.
You can pledge to do any of the following:
Recycle your metal, glass, plastic, paper, and cardboard
Recycle your food scraps and yard waste
Recycle your electronic waste
Safely dispose of your harmful household products
Reduce your waste by using reusable shopping bags, bottles, and mugs
Donate your clothing and textiles
Take the Zero Waste Pledge."
However, I have to admit, I don't always donate my clothing and textiles. I make patchwork out of them, redesign them, upcycle them, or sell them on ebay!
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I use one plastic store bag a week for my trash. Yes, for years I have been throwing out my garbage at no cost to myself - I have never had to buy garbage can liners. Fortunately, I have accumulated a huge supply of store bags over the years.
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One a week?! Oh, dear.
Perhaps you have a giant pit somewhere on your property in Oronoque that accommodates all the garbage with smell potential.
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Exactly. My neighbors put out huge black plastic garbage bags and I have everything in my little thin grocery store bags. I am not sure how forcing me to use big black plastic bags is helping the environment.
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@B. - Garbage disposal does the trick. Tea leaves, egg shells, and plastic food wrapping goes in the trash.
This new law prohibiting single-use plastic bags is nothing new for those of us who have lived in Europe or other places where this kind of a ban has been in effect for years.
It will be an interesting experiment to see how Americans suddenly have to cope with getting around without them.
It may be a bit inconvenient at first -- but the environment will thank us for it!
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This is great, next we need the paper of record to stop putting a difficult to recycle blue plastic bag on my doorstep every morning.
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We've been practicing using tote bags. It's okay. Hard to be out and about and toting 4-5 totes in preparation for doing grocery shopping on the way home.
Re cleaning the litter box: I remember using brown paper bags when I was a kid and having the damp litter immediately tear through the bottom and land on the living room floor on the way to the garbage. In those days, the invention of plastic bags seemed like a blessing.
Re Bill de Blasio: "Mr. de Blasio’s advocacy for Mr. Sanders has spurred speculation that the mayor may be strategically laying the groundwork for a spot in a future Sanders administration." Oh, brother. Well, we knew that would happen. Bill and Chirlane are on their way up, up the ladder, to a loftier public nosebag.
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@B. - Mayor Bill seems headed one day for a third act like Mayor Rudy, except maybe Mayor Bill never had a great reputation to begin with. :)
But a bright side about the Mayor Bill news is having fun with the title of the story "De Blasio’s New Side Hustle: Trolling Bloomberg"
like: Ask not for whom the Bill trolls, he trolls for, etc.
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@B.
Re Bill de Blasio--God forbid! I hope you're being sarcastic-- the man can't govern his own ego, let alone anything else.
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Of course, Joan. Bill and Bernie are a match made in heaven. The two of them can fool some of the people all the time; in that way they are like Donald and Rudy. Maybe less pernicious, but in the long run maybe not.
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Many if not most stores still have inventories of plastic bags. What will happen to these bags?
Will they be given to customers?
Or thrown away?
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It works easily all across Europe. There is no reason for it not to work here in the US.
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@George: Socialized medicine works easily all across Europe, too. So whaddya think will happen here?
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My family has been living a mostly-reusable-bag life for most of the last year. It didn’t take much adjustment, especially once we got collapsible ones that fit in a pocket or purse. I still occasionally get caught up without a bag at the bodega or grocery store, but that’s life.
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