Madison County to Move Ahead with Plastic Bag Ban

The decision came a few days after Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Plastic Bag Task Force issued a report aimed at combating plastic bag waste.

“Now that the governor’s task force has issued its report, which takes no specific position or makes no specific recommendation with regards to a statewide solution, we think it makes sense to revisit moving the local law forward,” said Jim Goldstein, town of Lebanon supervisor and chairman of the Madison County Solid Waste and Recycling Committee, in an email.

The state’s Plastic Bag Task Force issued its report on combating bag waste — including eight possible solutions to address their detrimental impact on the environment — earlier this month. The task force was established in March to study the issue of plastic bag waste and the possibility of developing a comprehensive statewide plan to address the impact the bags have.

The options to address plastic bag waste listed in the report are:

• Continue implementation of the existing New York State Plastic Bag Reduction, Reuse and Recycling Act while increasing education, enforcement and reporting requirements.
• Manufacturer responsibility for recycling of single-use plastic bags requiring them to fund and implement a program for the collection and recycling of single-use plastic bags.
• Institute a fee on single-use plastic bags.
• Fee per transaction for single-use bags. Under this option, rather than a fee per bag, a single fee would be imposed for the use of single-use bags
• Fee on single-use plastic and paper bags.
• Implement a ban on the sale and use of single-use plastic bags.
• Implement a ban on plastic bags with a fee on the allowable alternatives.
• Continue implementation of the existing New York State Plastic Bag Reduction, Reuse and Recycling Act.

Additionally, the report expresses the need for an approach to include an education and outreach campaign to make consumers aware of the problems with plastic bags for the environment and waste stream, encourage the use of reusable bags and explain how to properly recycle plastic bags.

The report was sent to Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the Legislature for consideration.