$16 Million Represents 3.5 Percent Of The Infrastructure Improvements The City Implemented In Connection With The Two New Baseball Stadiums*

Will the Department of Sanitation start picking up my trash if I put it in brown paper bags? Because those plastic ones come in handy, you know:

Call it a mixed bag.

Mayor Bloomberg has proposed slapping shoppers with a 5-cent surcharge for each plastic bag they get at stores — a move that left consumers sharply divided yesterday.

“Ugh, they’re going to start taxing everything now,” moaned Dora Capers, 47, of Brooklyn.

In a move intended to help the environment and the Big Apple as it faces a $4 billion deficit over the next two years, Bloomberg has recommended that the city impose a nickel surcharge for plastic bags.

Although the details of the plan are still being worked out, the surcharge could rake in upwards of $16 million — money that the Sanitation Department could use to offset the cost of collecting and disposing of plastic bags currently not recycled.

The plan — which may need approval from the state Legislature if it’s determined to be a tax — may include charging shoppers 6 cents, with a penny going to stores as incentive for collecting the new tax.

*Which is to say, you can push through a lot of unpopular ideas under the guise of finanical hardship.