Plastic Bag Ban Violators Getting Away with Breaking Law as Enforcers Check Out
By Reuven Blau | July 26, 2021 | The City
State regulators charged with overseeing the ban on single-use plastic shopping bags are overwhelmed by complaints, with more than 300 reported violators yet to be checked on, data obtained by THE CITY shows.
The Department of Environmental Conservation, the state agency that’s supposed to enforce the new regulation, has received 500 email complaints from concerned New Yorkers since the law took effect last October, the department said.
State investigators have conducted just 195 store visits, issuing 69 warning notices, all to spots in New York City and Long Island, according to the DEC. Only one shop in the seven counties has been hit with a cash-penalty violation for continued disregard of the new law since May 5, the records show.
Environmental activists called on the Cuomo administration to do more.
“DEC just needs to step it up,” said Judith Enck, a former EPA regional administrator, who supported the plastic bag ban.
Another activist was so frustrated by the lack of enforcement that he mailed the DEC four single-use plastic bags about two weeks ago.
“I told them that this non-enforcement is not fair to those stores that are complying with the ban,” said the activist, David Rosenfeld, 57, from Midwood, Brooklyn.