New York’s recently-enacted statewide ban on plastic bags is set to officially start this month, but actual enforcement of the law will not begin until April, according to the New York Post.
The delay comes after a united group of grocers filed a lawsuit in an attempt to block the law. After a closed-door meeting at the State Supreme Court in the capital city of Albany, the one-month delay deal was agreed to. A spokeswoman for New York’s Department of Environmental Conversation voiced her optimism about the deal, saying that “we will focus on education rather than enforcement, and today does not change that.”
Mayor and failed presidential candidate Bill de Blasio (D-N.Y.) celebrated the new law, claiming without evidence that “we only have one chance to save our planet,” and that “reducing the use of plastic bags will help us create a more sustainable city.”
De Blasio was in Union Square on Friday alongside city staffers and “green” activists, handing out 2,000 reusable bags and encouraging New Yorkers to get bags of their own in preparation for the ban.