On Plastic Bags, Council Members Push Carrot Versus Stick

The city's effort to deal with plastic bags is growing more complicated, as council members Gale Brewer and Simcha Felder plan to introduce a resolution encouraging state government to provide tax incentives to retailers who stop handing out plastic bags.

Assemblyman Brian Kavanagh of Manhattan and state Senator Marty Golden of Brooklyn say they will introduce companion legislation in Albany.

The move surprised backers of a separate bill to require the recycling of plastic bags in stores, such as Council Member Peter Vallone Jr., who said yesterday he had not been informed of the legislation. The approach, favored by Speaker Christine Quinn, Mr. Vallone, and the plastic bag lobby would be to fine businesses that do not collect, weigh, and recycle bags. Ms. Brewer and Mr. Felder's plan favors the carrot over the stick, calling for providing an income tax credit or deduction to businesses that eliminate the use of plastic bags entirely.

Ms. Brewer said yesterday that grocers see the recycling plan as a burden and that their thin profit margins make the transition to reusable bags from plastic difficult without additional incentives.

"This bill would help tremendously with their economic issues," she said.

According to Mr. Felder, his plan would both reduce waste and indirectly combat terrorism by reducing dependence on petroleum used to manufacture the bags.

The deputy director of the nonprofit advocacy group Earth Day New York, Elizabeth Broad, also hailed the idea of reducing oil consumption, saying it would help combat climate change.

Mr. Vallone, however, cautioned that reusable bags are not yet being used sufficiently to eliminate plastic entirely. "I commend them for bringing attention to the issue," Mr. Vallone said yesterday. "But the approach that the speaker and I are taking is supported by environmentalist groups and is the best approach."

Donna Dempsey, a spokeswoman for the plastic bag lobby, the Progressive Bag Alliance, said the plan would push consumers toward paper bags.

"If they were to take into consideration the environmental and unintended consequences of paper bags, they would reconsider their support for this bill," Ms. Dempsey said.

A lobbyist for the Neighborhood Retail Alliance, Richard Lipsky, praised the incentives plan, saying it would divide the burden of eliminating plastic bags more evenly between bag manufacturers and businesses than the recycling plan.