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When it comes to raising revenue for the City’s crippling economy, Mayor Bloomberg is thinking outside the bag.

Last week he announced a new proposal to charge grocery store shoppers six cents for each plastic bag they receive while bagging their groceries. The plan serves a dual purpose, according to Jason Post, a spokesperson for Bloomberg. Not only will it help generate an estimated $16 million for the City, he said, it will also encourage New York City consumers to go green and carry their own recyclable bags to stores, which will keep plastic out of landfills. The plan involves charging customers six cents a bag at the point of sale, with one cent going to the store owner as an incentive to participate.

“It’s stupid – it doesn’t make sense,” said Arshi Syed, a Fresh Meadows resident who shops at Waldbaums on Francis Lewis Boulevard.

As she struggled to load her car with eight heaving grocery bags, she admitted she has been thinking of switching to recyclable cloth bags.

“The thing is, we live in an apartment and plastic bags are more convenient. I don’t think this is fair,” she said.

Filomena Gamez often stops at Key Food in Forest Hills on her way home from work and said she is doubtful she will remember to carry reusable bags with her each time. She hopes the plastic bag fee will prove helpful to the environment but questions the City’s timing.

“I don’t think it’s fair to continue adding new fees while we’re in a recession,” Gamez said. “I can’t imagine having to pay six cents for a plastic bag when groceries are already as expensive as they are – a gallon of milk is almost $4! And most of the time, one plastic bag isn’t sturdy enough to hold a lot of groceries, so they double bag it, and now we’re up to 12 cents. It’s ridiculous.”

Bloomberg’s proposal may provoke debate, but it is far from a newfangled concept. In 2002, the Republic of Ireland began charging shoppers 33 cents a bag which, within one year, proved to cut plastic use by more than 90 percent in Ireland, according to the BBC.

On a global scale, nations as disparate as France, Bangladesh, Taiwan and Singapore have proposed similar legislation to help the environment and raise revenue. And back home, Seattle, perhaps the country’s greenest city, has proposed a 2009 bag tax that would require drug, grocery and convenience stores to charge 20 cents per disposable bag.

“I’ve heard the same law working well in so many other countries and I’m pretty surprised it hasn’t been implemented here yet,” said Penny Anna Makras, who shops at Key Food on Newtown Avenue in Astoria. “I support Bloomberg’s efforts. It’s better for the environment and if I don’t want to pay the fee then I’ll bring a reusable bag. If the law passes, I’ll remember to pack my bag – I don’t want to give away any more of my money.”

Many companies aren’t waiting for a law to be passed before they heed many consumers’ demands for bags made from biodegradable, organic or recycled materials – including those made from hemp, bamboo, recycled cotton, organic cotton or recycled PET. Reusablebags.com launched in spring 2003, at a time when there was little dialogue about the problems with plastic bags, said Vincent Cobb, the site’s founder and president. The Chicago-based company, which sells everything from reusable bottles to lead-free lunch boxes, has 165,000 online customers and its Web site has attracted 250,000 unique visitors per month.

“We’re not just a site that sells stuff, we’re a site that shapes the issue,” Cobb said.

He said he believes Bloomberg’s proposal is a step in the right direction, but questions if six cents is a hefty-enough fee to make a difference.