February 10th, 2022
City Limits
Girls Write Now Mentees Filomena Baker, Natalia Lashley and Cynthia Leung helped interview more than 50 bodega owners and store workers as part of the CLARIFY (The City Limits Accountability Reporting Initiative For Youth) internship program to assess the impact of the New York State plastic bag ban. Their reporting led to a thorough article examining the impact of the bag ban as well as the challenges in enforcing this piece of environmental law.
“More than half of those interviewed—about three dozen store owners or staffers—reported that they were still using plastic bags, or a mix of plastic and paper. The student reporters reached out to dozens of businesses, in person and over the telephone, and successfully surveyed 11 store representatives in Queens, 12 in Brooklyn, 13 in The Bronx and 18 in Staten Island. They asked workers if their store was still using plastic bags and a series of questions to understand the challenges in switching to paper bags or customer-provided bags.”