Below is the transcript of Nicki Feldbaum ’15’s speech to the members of the Sanitation Committee at City Council on the proposed charge on plastic bags.
Honored members of the Sanitation Committee,
My name is Nicole Feldbaum, and I am here representing the students of New York City who have been working for two years to make this day arrive by organizing citywide conferences and holding meetings with the members of City Council. We are calling upon you as our representatives to take an environmental and fiscal leap for the benefit of New York City.
To any who may not be aware, this bill essentially proposes a ten-cent charge on any plastic or paper bags coming from retail and grocery-type stores. The businesses keep the ten cents, landfills and recycling plants get to enjoy less plastic and fewer clogged machines, the city of New York benefits from the saved money from waste disposal, and we benefit from a greener New York.
There are a plethora of bills out there that aim to make the world greener, healthier, more sustainable. What makes this one special is threefold. First, there is a certain monetary value attached to the issue. Unlike many other green processes that cost money to implement and end up paying off their debt very slowly, for every bag not used, money is saved by the government of New York. There are no hidden fees. Second, once the charge begins, the effects are nearly immediate. In Washington DC, a tax dropped plastic bag usage from 22.5 million bags per month to 3 million in just the first month. There’s little to no “wait time” between the implementation of the charge and visible results. Which brings me to the third point: the effects of this bill are very visual. The statistics for previous versions of this bill point to major differences in plastic bag usage with their percentages. This is not an idea that drops usage 2 percent or 3 percent; rather, the statistics are staggering. In Ireland, a tax dropped overall plastic bag use about 95%. A bill that can both aid the environment and have visual, quick results is quite rare.
This bill is very reasonable. It is not proposing an outright ban on all single-use bags; rather, it’s proposing a fee that will incentivize the bringing of reusable bags. It’s also certainly not aimed at charging customers ten cents every time they shop. This is why the bill will have little impact on the finances of our constituents. So long as they remember to bring their reusable bags – bags that will be distributed throughout the city first to low-income residents and then to others as available – they will not be charged. Along the same lines, the bill is sensible in that it will not affect SNAP and WIC users, as their transactions will never incur the ten-cent fee.
We urge you to strongly consider this bill for the betterment of New York City as a whole. Your vote will ensure our future.