Town to consider fee on single-use plastic bags

By Linda Smith Hancharick
WARWICK — When you drive into ShopRite or Price Chopper parking lot, you will see the BYOBag sign, a reminder from Sustainable Warwick to bring your own bag whenever you shop.
Soon, it may also save you money.
On Thursday, Feb. 22, the Town of Warwick will consider a new local law imposing a five cent fee on consumers for each carryout bag provided by any business in the town.
The local law defines a carryout bag as “a bag provided by a business establishment to a customer typically at the point of sale for the purpose of transporting purchases.”
Business establishments include any business that provides carryout bags to its customers. The establishment would keep the fee.
ExemptionsThere are exemptions, including bags found in stores without handles that are used for produce, meats, baked goods and bulk items.
Also exempt are dry cleaning bags, newspaper delivery bags, bags provided by doctors, pharmacists and vets for prescription drugs and bags provided at liquor stores.
Customers buying items using the New York State Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) or the New York State Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) are exempt from the bag fee.
Businesses that violate this local law would face fines up to $250.
The town’s plan is to promote the use of reusable bags and discourage the use of carryout bags
Why the move?Paper and plastic bags do not easily decompose. Plastic especially causes issues in the environment and ultimately in the food supply. When exposed to sunlight, plastic bags degrade into tiny particles called microplastics.
Because they don’t biodegrade, these microplastics make their way into the soil, water and ultimately the food supply, according to Sustainable Warwick’s website. They are ingested by fish and birds, resulting in the contamination of the food supply.
In addition, the light weight plastic bags get tangled in trees and drift into waterways and onto grazing pastures, killing birds, marine life and cattle which ingest the bags. They also are blown onto sidewalks and storm drains.
According to Sustainable Warwick, a grass-roots organization formed in 2006 to help preserve and sustain Warwick’s environment, 11 million plastic bags are used in the Town of Warwick each year.
Public hearing on Feb. 22The local law creating chapter 73 entitled “Carryout Bags” would impose the bag fee of “not less than five cents” on the customer in an effort to shift behavior toward the use of reusable bags, reducing the number of carryout bags within the town. Anyone wishing to speak about the new fee may do so at the town’s public hearing on Thursday, Feb. 22, at 7:15 p.m. at the Warwick Town Hall, 132 Kings Highway.
If approved, the law would go into effect on April 22, 2018, which happens to be Earth Day.