NEW YORK – New York City lawmakers announced earlier this week a proposal to charge consumers at least 10 cents for each plastic and paper bag they use at retail stores, Gothamist reports.

New Yorkers use more than 5 billion carryout bags per year, while the city spends roughly $10 million annually to transport 100,000 tons of plastic bag waste to landfills in other states.

Council Members Brad Lander and Margaret Chin authored the bill, inspired by similar laws and their impact in Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles. In those cities, plastic bag usage decline by 60% and 95%, respectively.

Mayor Bloomberg attempted to impose a plastic bag tax in 2008, but the City Council struck it down.

"There are a couple of things different this time from last time," Council Member Lander said. "The mayor was proposing a tax... and there were some legal questions there about whether the city actually had the power to do that." This legislation, he said, was not a tax; rather, the 10-cent per bag fee would go to the store, not the city.

The bill is scheduled to be introduced today and has been embraced by environmental groups.

"Who will miss plastic bags once they are gone?" said Colin Beavan, the executive director of the No Impact Project. "No one!"

Opposing the surcharge is the American Progressive Bag Alliance, a group that represents bag manufacturers, who said that "a grocery bag tax pushes shoppers toward less sustainable options, like reusable bags, which cannot be recycled, are made from foreign oil and imported at a rate of 500 million annually."