Hein signs ban of single-use plastic bags
KINGSTON, N.Y. >> With a stroke of his pen Thursday, Ulster County Executive Michael Hein positioned the county among only a handful in the nation that bar most retailers from putting customers’ purchases in single-use plastic bags.
Hein signed the legislation, known as the Bring Your Own Bag Act, before a cadre of environmentalists, county legislators and others during a press conference in the County Office Building.
The law, he said, will “encourage people to use reusable bags as they do their shopping, as they live their life, just as they did, by the way, for generations and generations.”
The law is to take effect in mid-2019. It will bar most retailers from from using plastic bags for customers’ purchases and requires stores to charge 5 cents for each recyclable paper bag provided to customers who don’t bring their own reusable bags.
Restaurants located outside of grocery stores, supermarkets, convenience stores and food marts are exempt.
Retailers that violate the law can face fines ranging from $100 for a first offense to $500 for a third offense.
Although a handful of municipalities, including New Paltz, have adopted local laws banning single-use plastic bags, Ulster County is the first in the state to ban their use countywide. Suffolk County has enacted a law requiring retailers to charge 5 cents for plastic bags, and Nassau County is considering a similar law. Dutchess County is considering a law that would levy a fee on single-use carryout bags, and Sullivan County is looking into some kind of ban.
In signing the Ulster County law, Hein called the proliferation of plastic bags “more than just a simple environmental issue.”
“It’s a public health crisis” he said, noting that studies have shown that plastics are carcinogenic to humans.
The Ulster County Legislature adopted the ban by a vote of 15-7 in September.
In response to concerns raised by Hein, Legislator Tracey Bartels said she will introduce an amendment to exempt individuals who receive food stamps or Women-Infants-Children assistance from having to pay the fee for paper bags. She also will seek to push the law’s start date back to July 15, 2019, and the start of penalties to January 2020.
The law was to take effect in June 2019, with violators being penalized immediately.