It is time for New York to implement a city-wide tax on disposable, non-recyclable plastic bags.

Plastic bag taxes and bans have been introduced with great success in cities across the country and the globe, including in the capital of the United States, Washington, D.C. They have proven substantially to reduce plastic bag consumption, reduce waste, and clean up the environment. If New York City hopes to play a major role in the international movement to protect the environmental assets of our earth, it will get on board.

Reducing plastic bag use in the New York City metro area (estimated to be more than four billion plastic bags each year) by only 50 percent would reduce the city’s carbon footprint by more than two million tons of CO2 each year.

The average New York City citizen produces about one ton of waste each year, approximately five percent in the form of plastic bags; producing one kilogram of bag plastic requires about two kilograms of oil; each kilogram of oil releases three kilograms of carbon into the atmosphere; if plastic bag use were reduced by half, about .025 tons of plastic bag waste would be reduced per capita, about 475,000 tons of plastic bags in total, saving two million tons of carbon from release into the environment.

Plastic bags that wind up in rivers, oceans and forests can pollute water and soil and seriously endanger many forms of wildlife.

In 2009, the Mayor’s Office projected a more than $20 million increase per year in city revenue from a plastic bag tax, which could be applied to improve schools, government job benefits, sanitation, or to reduce taxes in other areas.

Plastic bags account for nearly five percent of the city’s waste. Reducing this quantity by only half has the potential to save the city millions of additional dollars in collection fees each year.

As in Washington, D.C., a bag tax may compensate retailers for their participation, generating revenue for local businesses. Consumers may bring their own bag and pay nothing.

To read more about the petition, visit www.bagthebagnyc.com.