If you’re dismayed by the sight of plastic bags hanging off neighborhood trees, lining gutters and strewn on New York streets, it’s time to take action. Please take a moment to sign this petition addressed to Sen. E. Adams, Sen. C. Schumer, Rep. Y. Clarke, Asm. R. Jacobs.

Our goal: 5,000 signatures.

ONLINE PETITION:

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/act-to-reduce-plasticbags-NewYork

Help clean-up our neighborhoods; protect wildlife and nature from choking on plastic; and reduce pollution.

A new law by the NYC City Council went into effect last week mandating that stores of 5,000 square feet or more or chains of five stores or more must collect and recycle plastic bags that they give to consumers.

Stores will be required to provide bag collection points in visible locations, they must use bags that display a message to remind consumers to return the bags for recycling, and they must submit annual reports to the Department of Sanitation. The law also applies to package wrap, dry cleaning bags and newspaper bags. Any store in violation of the law will be subject to a fine of up to $300 per day.

But a similar law pending in Albany would be much weaker, only requiring plastic bag recycling of stores that are twice the size of the city’s — 10,000 square feet — and only addressing plastic carry-out bags. Where the city law makes clear the responsibilities of bag manufacturers, the state law shows no clear obligation on the manufacturer’s part to collect, transport or recycle bags.

With the stronger city law now in effect and the bill headed to Governor David Patterson’s desk, the City Council has advocated for New Yorkers to let the state government know that we prefer the stronger city bill.

Send Governor Patterson an email — or give his office a quick call — and let him know that NYC must be exempt from the state bill!

Listen to a report by WNYC News about the impending showdown:

Send Gov. Patterson an email by using this form.

Call his office: 518-474-8390

Take action!

Read on for much more about the NYC/NYS showdown over plastic bags and comments on the new NYC law…

Breaking news from The Brooklyn Paper’s Gersh Kuntzman:

In one of the most lopsided votes since the re-election of Chairman Mao in 1954, members of Brooklyn’s famously progressive supermarket, the Park Slope Food Co-op, voted nearly unanimously on Tuesday night to stop making plastic shopping bags available at the checkout counter.

Read the whole thing here.

Check out GBK’s ‘Ban The Bag‘ page for more info and links.

Brooklyn Declares, “Let’s Get Green!”

It must be Spring. People seem to be in the giving mood. First Haagen-Dazs with the wildflower seed give-away; and now a team of Brooklyn pols, companies, and environmental organizations come together to provide greenmarket shoppers free canvas bags to replace icky plastic predecessors.

On Tuesday, May 27th at 1:30 PM, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, Council Members Gale A. Brewer and Simcha Felder, along with Elizabeth Broad from Earth Day New York will be handing out thousands of the free “My Green New York” bags.

As if “free” and “non-plastic canvas bag” wasn’t enough to get you out to the greenmarket, the bags are covered in green living designs created NYC high school and college design students.

Get yer bag:

Tuesday, May 27th at 1:30 PM
Brooklyn Borough Hall Greenmarket

Click the link below to read on……… and don’t forget to check out GBK’s ‘Ban the Bag‘ initiative to ban the use of plastic bags from NYC.

As GBK has noted in the past, you don’t have to be a hard-core environmentalist to find the image of a plastic bag stuck in a tree disturbing.

While it is not an all-out ban on the ugly things, Mayor Bloomberg has recently signed a bill into law that would mandate plastic bag collection and recycling programs, as well as recycled bag programs, for the city’s businesses that have a 5,000 square foot store footprint or larger. NYC Council Members Peter Vallone Jr., Gale Brewer, Michael McMahon, and Speaker Christine Quinn appear with Bloomberg in the photo.

It is a good step. But it really is just a step towards eliminating the things altogether.

China is going to ban free plastic bags (note the news source on that link — OH the irony!).

Ireland posted a $.33 tax on plastic bags and usage dropped 94% in a matter of weeks.

And we all know about SF’s bag ban.

In honor of Bloomberg’s signing the bill, GBK has posted a plastic bag ticker — look on the sidebar below the poll — that we initially found through the blog of GBK favorite RePlayGround.