New York governor signs plastic recycling bill

Archiv – Starting next month, many retailers in the US metropolis New York will be required to recycle plastic shopping bags under a bill New York Governor David Paterson signed into law on Saturday.
Effective January 1, large grocers and other retailers that offer plastic bags to their customers will be required to put out bins where shoppers can deposit them and recycle the returned bags. It’s similar to a recently enacted California law, as well as local ordinances adopted in municipalities US wide, including New York City. United States | Starting next month, many retailers in the US metropolis New York will be required to recycle plastic shopping bags under a bill New York Governor David Paterson signed into law on Saturday.
Effective January 1, large grocers and other retailers that offer plastic bags to their customers will be required to put out bins where shoppers can deposit them and recycle the returned bags. It’s similar to a recently enacted California law, as well as local ordinances adopted in municipalities US wide, including New York City.
The debate over the use of the thin, petroleum-based plastic bags has intensified in recent years because of ever-increasing public awareness about environmental issues. It’s spurred many retailers to offers reusable bags and some to even stop using the plastic ones altogether.
Judith Enck, Paterson’s deputy secretary for the environment, says statistics show that consumers throw away roughly 100 million of the bags nationally every year.
’The bill signed by Gov. Paterson will make it easier for New Yorkers to recycle used plastic bags and encourage greater use of reusable bags,’ Enck says. New York’s applies to stores with more than 10,000-square-feet of retail space or those that are part of a chain with more than five stores, each with more than 5,000-square-feet of retail space. With the new state law, local governments are pre-empted from adopting their own shopping-bag recycling laws.
In related news, a New York State committee has drafted 18 new green procurement guidelines, covering printers, traffic cones, air conditioners and other products and services. The committee has approved 18 tentative specifications, which are up for public review. Final specifications for desktop and laptop computers, engine block heaters and vehicles have already been established.
The specs include energy efficiency, recycled content, toxic chemical reduction and reuse. All printers would be required to carry the Energy Star logo, provide double-sided printing by default and print in black and white ink by default. Traffic message boards would need to be powered primarily by solar panels, and traffic cones would need to contain 50 percent recycled content, with as least 10% postconsumer content.
The tentative specs cover dishwashers, clothes washers, refrigerators, office printers, air conditioners, hydraulic and motor oil, traffic message boards, traffic safety products, lithographic ink, and services like printing, pest management recycling and turf management.