Current Event #15 - Paper Bags in New York

In New York, there has recently been a ban on plastic bags, but using paper bags from a store will still cost you five cents by next year. When the state lawmakers approved the ban on plastic carry-out bags it helped to end the “paper or plastic?” dilemma. The state lawmakers gave an option whether to charge for the paper alternative or not. They voted on it and there is a nickel fee on the paper carry-out bag. It was approved less than a month after New York became the second state to ban most plastic bags and the ban was signed on Earth day. Environmentalists like the movement of banning plastic but think that the paper alternatives will exchange one form of waste to another.

I think banning plastic bags is a great idea to reduce plastic waste and with more decomposable paper bags. Although one form of waste is going to the other. Instead of plastic waste, we will have paper waste. I think the fee on the paper bags will help in the change. It would be so much easier to buy reusable bags then pay five cents every time you get a paper bag at the store. I also think the goal is to get people to use more of the reusable bags than the paper to reduce waste. With people buying fewer paper bags and reducing their waste could help with the clogged storm drains and polluted waterways of New York. This new movement could be very beneficial.

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