The plastic bags that New Yorkers walk away with after shopping have many functions in their 2nd lives - picking up dog poop, reuse as garbage bags, or even getting caught in trees - but there's one especially novel usage. In today's entry on the city's new plastic bag recycling bill, which awaits Mayor Bloomberg's signature, we learned that plastic bags can also be used as toys for children:
The best way to reuse plastic bags is to let your young children play with them! They make wonderful and amusing toys. A great favorite of all children is playing 'Spaceman', using a plastic bag as a make believe Flash Gordon style helmet!
Naturally, emilydickinson was being sarcastic when she left the comment, but that sarcasm wasn't picked up by all.
The bill will require stores of over 5,000 sq. ft. to offer recycling for the bags and have bins where bags may be returned. Lest chains with small locations be left out of the recycling bonanza, any store with more than five locations will also have to offer bag recycling as well.
Other readers wondered if using an economic incentive like a 5-10¢ charge or discount would work to cut down on actual bag usage by consumers.
Photo of recyclables as costume in the Art Parade by mattcarman on flickr; that's another way of using the bags a second time
