New York City Grocery Bag at 10-cent Each Proposed for Growing Green Movement

By Jobs & Hire Staff Reporter | Mar 26, 2014 07:59 PM EDT

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New York City grocery bags will soon have a 10-cent fee for all plastic or paper bags, and will no longer be free. The nation's largest city is adapting itself to its growing green movement.

A bill was introduced by the City Council this Wednesday, implementing a fee on grocery bags to encourage shoppers to bring their own reusable bags. Environmentally, this move will benefit the city in a large scale, also affecting a considerable increase to the economy.

One major problem of grocery bags is waste management. Some that are not properly segregated to trash bins are left on the streets and may get stuck on drains, that can cause flooding. This problem cost a lot of money for New York City. The expense for managing the waste, and shipping it to landfills of is at $10 million annually. Every year, residents use up to 5.2 billion disposable plastic bags creating a a lot of mess. According to bill's supporters.

The bill will be voted upon for the next few weeks, and is expected to provide a positive measure and solution for a more greener environment. Los Angeles, Seattle,San Francisco, and Washington is also expected to be enlisted ,and join with this standards, once the bill has passed.

"My understanding is the legislation is not focused on banning plastic bags,"Deputy Sanitation Commissioner Ron Gonen said. "It's focused on charging a fee to encourage people to use less."

As of now, the bill already garnered 19 council members supporting the legislation for a 10-cent fee for grocery bags. It only needs 7 more votes from council members in order the bill to be passed to the mayor's desk. At that time, an approval of the mayor would be the last step to seal the legislation and be implemented to the city.

Mixed ideas and responses came from residents of New York City, regarding the new bill on a 10-cent fee grocery bags.

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