New Yorkers will now need to bring their own bags with them when shopping as the state's ban on plastic bags starts Monday. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation issued the order on March 1 and will now begin enforcing the regulation that affects single-use plastic carryout bags.

Paper bags will still be allowed, but retailers will have the option to enforce a 5-cent fee for the use of these bags, WNBC, an NBC affiliate out of New York City, reported. Consumers using food stamps will be exempt from the paper bag fee. Restaurants will be able to continue using plastic bags for takeout food as well as to wrap meat and serve prepared foods, the news outlet said.

The agency’s commissioner, Basel Seggos, said in a statement in September about the ban, “As we have for many months, DEC is encouraging New Yorkers to make the switch to reusable bags whenever and wherever they shop and to use common-sense precautions to keep reusable bags clean.”

According to the Department of Environmental Conservation, New Yorkers use about 23 billion plastic bags each year for about 12 minutes, with an estimated 85% of these bags ending up in landfills, recycling machines, waterways, and streets.

“Right this minute, plastic bags are hanging in trees, blowing down the streets, filling up our landfills and polluting our lakes, rivers and streams—all hurting our environment,” Governor Andrew M. Cuomo said in a statement about the ban. “Twelve million barrels of oil are used to make the plastic bags we use every year and by 2050 there will be more plastic by weight in the oceans than fish.”

Prior to issuing the ban across the state of New York, 10 cities, towns, and villages already had a plastic bag ban in place. New Jersey is also considering a plastic as well as paper bag ban.

plastic bags
Paid-for plastic bags are pictured.With globally warming and other environmental threats emerging as the biggest concern across the globe over the past decade, the need to impose eco-friendly practices surfaced.In 2007, Britons used an estimated 10 billion plastic carrier bags each year. In August 2010, it was reported that the number of 'single-use' plastic bags given to customers by leading UK supermarkets had fallen for the fourth consecutive year.The British Retail Consortium (BRC), which reported that the total had dropped from 10.6 billion in 2006 to 6.1 billion in the year to May 2010, a reduction of 43 per cent against a reduction of 37 per cent in the year to May 2009, observed that the trend was "a ringing endorsement" of the voluntary approach taken by supermarkets at a time when sales volumes increased by more than 6 per cent. REUTERS/Stephen Hird
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