What price plastic? That is the issue facing Ulster County legislators and consumers after the county”™s environmental committee unanimously agreed to authorize a public hearing that could eventually lead to a mandatory dime-per-bag fee on all stores that provide grocery bags for their customers.Â
“This law is meant to directly impact the kind of bags you carry groceries home in, the kind that float around your neighborhood and clog our landfills,” said county Legislator Brian Shapiro, who is the chairman of the environmental committee. The committee on March 3 unanimously passed a motion to set up a public hearing on the matter; that idea will be taken up by the full Legislature next month.  Â
Shapiro said that he had originally sought a quarter-per-bag fee and wanted to collect the money from the fee and use it for environmentally related purposes. However, that would amount to a tax, which would need state approval that could take a long time to obtain. So instead, he said, the committee decided on the 10-cent fee to be kept by the stores.
“It”™s not going to break the bank, but it does inspire us to change our consumer habits,” said Shapiro. “If you don”™t want to spend 10 cents, you are going to use a reusable bag.” He said that the plastic bags end up as litter or filling landfills and added that plastic grocery bags are made from oil.
The law would not apply to plastic bags dispensed on rolls used by consumers to carry, say, their vegetables in, but would only cover bags used to carry groceries from the store.
The store Health and Nutrition in New Paltz last summer began charging customers 15 cents per grocery bag.
“Most people like it,” said Carole, the store manager who declined to give her last name. She said the idea behind charging for grocery bags is simple. “So customers bring their own bags. It”™s good for our environment.”
Shapiro said Ulster County can take “a leadership role” by imposing the 10-cent fee on plastic bags, but noted the county has already been trumped by Ireland, where a bag fee was imposed last year. Since then, use of plastic grocery bags has been reduced by more than 90 percent, according to government figures.
The city of Seattle last year passed a 20-cent-per-bag fee, which took effect in January. City Council members there predicted that, like mandatory recycling, the novelty and controversy would soon fade and people would simply change their habits. The cities of San Francisco and Los Angeles simply ban plastic bags from grocery stores.Â
Shapiro said that consultation with the attorney for the county legislature confirms that fee would be legal, but he said it”™s the politics that are uncertain. “We do have the legal authority 100 percent,” Shapiro said. “Do we have the support in the full legislature? That”™s what we”™re gearing up for answering.”
He said there has been no decision made on how such a law would be enforced and said his committee is keeping the county executive”™s office up to date on the matter. “I think it”™s a forward-looking piece of legislation,” said Shapiro. “I”™m looking forward to public hearings on it. Everyone will have a chance to weigh in.”
