Mayor of New York plans plastic bags charge

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is looking to Ireland for innovative ways to cut the city’s budget deficit, it was revealed today.

Mr Bloomberg, who recently launched his campaign to be re-elected for a third term, is considering charging five cents per bag in a proposal which is expected to raise $16m (€12.5m) per year.

It is part of a series of ideas to cut the city’s budget deficit, which is projected to be $303m (€237m) this fiscal year and $3.7bn (€2.9bn) next year.

The move comes after the introduction of a 15-cent fee in Ireland six years ago cut plastic bag used by 94%.

New Yorkers use an estimated one billion plastic bags per year.

Rohit Aggarwala, Mr Bloomberg’s head of environmental affairs, said he hoped the small charge would make people change their behaviour.

The city considered a plastic bag tax earlier this year but settled for a mandatory recycling programme instead.

San Francisco bans plastic bags unless they are biodegradable, while a proposed 20-cent fee in Seattle is on hold pending a challenge.

Elsewhere in the US, Ikea tried charging customers five cents per bag, but then decided to eliminate plastic bags altogether when demand for its 70 million bags a year dropped 92%.

But the city’s proposal looks set to be controversial.

Keith Christman, of the American Chemistry Council, told the New York Daily News: “This would essentially be a food tax. It would have major unintended environmental consequences.”