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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Governor Urged to Join Fight Against NY’s "Urban Tumbleweed"

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Monday, December 23, 2013   

NEW YORK - The call is going out for Gov. Andrew Cuomo to put a lid on New Yorkers' 10-billion-disposable bags-per-year habit by imposing a fee on retailers who package what they sell in disposable bags. Saima Anjam, government affairs associate, Environmental Advocates of New York, estimated that most disposable bags are good for one trip from the store and have a useful life of about 12 minutes. She said the problem is that they add to the state's solid waste problem, and plastic bags, in particular, have a tendency to become neighborhood nuisances.

"If you walk down the street, you will see plastic bags stuck in trees, you will see them in the sewers. I like to call them the new 'urban tumbleweed.' We really need to find a way to take care of this problem," Anjam said.

Consumers can help by bringing a reusable bag to the store when they shop, she said. Her group is urging Cuomo to impose statewide fees on the use of disposable bags in his executive budget.

Critics have said now is a bad time to be thinking about fees, given the tough economy, but Anjam said there would be a short-term revenue gain for the state, and the effect of the fee would be reduced as retailers and consumers changed their habits by switching to reusable bags.

"In Washington, D.C., they actually implemented a five-cent charge on plastic bags, and it really resulted in an 86 percent reduction in plastic bag use in just the first couple of months," she said.

Anjim pointed out that several communities in New York, including South Hampton, have already enacted bans that are working well.

"It seems like a no-brainer. I mean, retailers spend about $4 billion a year on plastic bags; they'll pay for them up front, but then they trickle down into the cost of their products. That's a lot of money, and businesses could be saving that," Anjim noted.

New Yorkers can start helping by switching to reusable bags, which she said are less flimsy, often hold more and are easier to handle, while they help the environment.




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