New York retailers are being forced to plunge millions of dollars into providing shoppers with in-store plastic bag recycling bins.

Under a bill passed last week by the New York City Council, retailers with more than 5,000 square feet of store space or more than five outlets will have to provide services to collect and recycle used bags and other plastic products.

The bins, which have to be located in a prominent store position, can be used to collect any type of plastic bag or product.

Store owners will also have to print a message on all plastic bags distributed, reminding shoppers to recycle.

The initiative, which has been criticised by some as political meddling, is likely to heap extra cost pressure on the retail sector.

However, it has been broadly welcomed by US consumers, who use around 86 billion bags a year. Plastic bags do not degrade for between 20 and 1,000 years, and have been blamed for killing wildlife, clogging landfill and polluting the ocean.

Similar crack-downs have been introduced in Ireland, where there has been a plastic bag tax since 2002, and China, where distributing bags becomes illegal from June. Plans for a bag tax have also been raised in London, where councils are lobbying the government to introduce legislation governing their use.