New York's never-enforced ban on single-use plastic bags has survived a lawsuit lodged by a plastic bag manufacturer and convenience store owners, but a state judge ruled Thursday that state regulators went too far by allowing stores to hand out thicker plastic bags one day.
A law in New York went into effect March 1 that bans many types of businesses from using the thin plastic bags that have been clogging up landfills, getting tangled in trees and accumulating in lakes and seas. But the Department of Environmental Conservation agreed to delay enforcement of the law as the agency fought to get state courts to toss out the lawsuit.
State Supreme Court Justice Gerald Connolly ordered New York in a decision released Thursday to rules allowing thicker plastic bags.
