3 Things You Need to Know About NY’s Plastic Bag Ban

You probably keep hearing a lot about this plastic bag ban. It's confusing! Want to know what's going on without reading a long article about what the government talked about?

A few weeks ago, the news was everywhere. The government is talking about getting rid of plastic bags. What does that actually mean, you ask? Spectrum News broke down the top 6 things you need to know about this ban, I broke it down further to just three. Hopefully, it makes it all a little easier to understand.

1. The ban won't take effect for another 11 months, March 1st of next year. I can only assume that this is to give stores time to come up with another option or a way to provide multi-use bags.
2. Not all plastic bags will be banned. You'll still be able to use plastic bags for uncooked fish or meat, plastic bags used for bulk items, plastic bags used to deliver newspapers or magazines, trash bags, garment bags, carry out bags for your restaurant leftovers and bags for prescription drugs.
3. There will be a fee to use paper bags. It's not much and it actually goes to a great cause. Paper bags will cost five cents of which, three cents will go to New York's Environmental Protection Fund and the other two cents will go to local government (SNAP users can be exempt from fee).