ALBANY — New York state will start enforcing its long-stalled ban on single-use plastic bags in grocery stores and supermarkets starting Oct. 19, according to a letter filed in court Friday.
Some bags are exempt from the rule, including plastic bags used by a pharmacy to carry prescription drugs, produce bags for fruits and vegetables or those used to wrap fish and meat.
After Oct. 19, first-time offenders will receive a warning from the DEC but won’t be hit with a monetary penalty. Those merchants found in violation a second time will be hit with a $250 penalty, and then a $500 fine upon third offense.
The ban took effect March 1, but has been stalled thanks to a lawsuit filed in Albany Supreme Court from Poly-Pak Industries — a Long Island-based plastics manufacturer — that halted state enforcement requiring retailers to trash the environmentally unsound.
But an August decision by Acting Supreme Court Justice Gerald Connolly struck down a majority of the company’s arguments, green-lighting the state to proceed with enforcement so long as the state Department of Environmental Conservation provided at least one month’s notice to businesses ahead of enforcement — which it did on Friday in a notification letter to Connolly.
“The Court’s decision is a victory and a vindication of the state’s efforts to end the use of most plastic bags and a direct rebuke to the plastic bag manufacturers who tried to stop the law and DEC’s regulations to implement it,” DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos said in a statement.
“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.”
Meanwhile, representatives from the plastic bag industries argue they don’t see the move as a total loss, as the judge’s decision said the DEC’s interpretation and subsequent regulation regarding bag thickness conflicted with the types of bags
, signed into law last year.
