ANTI-BAG MAN

Cuomo: I might back de Blasio in plastic ban

ALBANY — Gov. Cuomo is open to banning the bags.

A day after Mayor de Blasio called for a ban on plastic shopping bags in New York, a spokesman for Cuomo revealed Monday that the governor is considering such a step.

“It’s clear that we need to address the real environmental concerns caused by the proliferation of plastic bags, and a ban is one of the options we’re reviewing,” Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi said.

Azzopardi did not give a timetable for when the governor would make a decision on the issue.

Advocates for banning plastic shopping bags said Cuomo’s support is key for the issue to overcome significant resistance in the state Legislature, especially the GOP-controlled state Senate.

“It would need the support of the governor,” said State Sen. Liz Krueger (D-Manhattan), who recently introduced legislation to ban plastic shopping bags across the state and put up to a 25-cent fee on paper bags.

A ban on singleuse plastic bags was one of several options put forward in January by a task force Cuomo created to study the issue of plastic bag waste.

Cuomo created the task force last year after he signed a measure that blocked the city from going forward with a 5-cent fee on plastic and paper disposable bags.

Instead of making specific recommendations, however, the task force only outlined options, which also included stronger enforcement of existing laws to reduce plastic bag waste, a new fee on the bags and a requirement that bag manufacturers fund a program to collect and recycle them.

In a tweet Sunday, de Blasio said “the time for debate on this is over” and it was time to ban the bags.

“The state is behind the curve here, it’s time to put our planet first,” he wrote.

State lawmakers said it was unlikely a statewide ban would be approved.

“It’s not happening,” said Sen. Martin Golden (R-Brooklyn) “You can’t do that, people depend on them — senior citizens, families. You go shopping, you need a bag.”

Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) agreed it was unlikely the Legislature would approve a statewide ban but noted that the city could enact such a ban for the five boroughs.

“The Council and the mayor can ban plastic bags if they want to do it and we wouldn’t interfere with that,” Heastie said.

On NY1 Monday night, de Blasio said he doesn’t want to just consider banning the bags — which he dubbed “just wasteful and destructive in every way” — he wants to “abolish them.”

“We’re examining the options of what could be done through city legislation, and what needs to be done through state legislation,” he said. “We need to resolve that.”