NYC Plastic Bag Law In Effect
by Ashley Schiller
Published on July 31st, 2008
4 Comments
If you give New York City law.
The law, which went into effect July 23, requires NYC stores that provide plastic carryout bags to accept plastic bags for recycling. Restaurants and non-chain stores of less than 5,000 feet are exceptions. The law mandates that at least one clearly marked bin is set up in each store. Also, stores must sell reusable bags.
Accepted materials include:
- plastic shopping bags
- dry cleaning bags
- newspaper delivery bags
Plastic bags comprise about 2.87 percent of NYC’s residential waste stream, and are the largest source of plastic in the city’s waste.
The bags are best recycled separately, rather than with other items, according to the city. When bags are mixed with other items such as beverage cartons and cans, the organic material contained on those recyclables can contaminate the bags and render the batch unusable.
Use Earth 911 to find a locaiton to recycle plastic bags near you.
k.macana
posted on February 4th, 2009 at 11:22 am
i do my best to recycle but don’t know what to do with plastic veggie bags or the plastic trays from the cookie packages.
Kylee
posted on February 10th, 2009 at 1:12 pm
It’s Great to recycle so go to Earth911.com
Annette
posted on February 22nd, 2009 at 8:57 am
My school recycles plastic water bottles but we have to pay for them to be picked up. With the economy as it is, we are not getting grants or donations to defer this cost.
Does anyone know where/how we can continue this more economically?
Angela
posted on April 14th, 2010 at 9:03 pm
Aren’t plastic bags the largest source of plastic in the city waste due to the fact organic or wet fraction of waste must be packed in plastic bags? What are alternative materials other than plastic?