The plans to charge New Yorkers a nickel for every paper bag they get at stores passed its first hurdle Wednesday.
City Council’s Sanitation Committee moved a bill, drafted by council members Margaret Chin and Brad Lander and backed by the De Blasio administration, to the full council for approval. The council members and environmental advocates said the fee, coupled with the state’s ban on plastic bags that goes into effect next year, will help push people to use reusable bags when they shop.
City Councilman Chaim Deutsch, who cast the committee’s lone vote against the bill, said that the proposed regulation would cause serious financial and logistical problems for some New Yorkers who can’t carry nondisposable bags all of the time.
“It is really a hardship to walk with a dozen reusable bags in their pocket,” he said.
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{Matzav.com}