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have you guys seen this? 5 cent tax on plastic bags!!!
I really hope the whole US starts doing this!!!!!
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/03/plastic-bag-use-dc-drops-22-million-3-million.php
Plastic Bags Used in DC Drops From 22 Million to 3 Million a Month
by Brian
Merchant, Brooklyn, New York 
on
03.31.10
The Most Effective Tax Ever?
Washington DC's 5
cent tax on plastic bags, instated just this past January, has
already proven to have a phenomenal impact: the number of plastic bags
handed out by supermarkets and other establishments dropped from the
2009 monthly average of 22.5 million to just 3 million in January. While
significantly reducing plastic waste, the tax simultaneously generated
$150,000 in revenue, which will be used to clean up the Anacostia River.
Council member Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6), sponsor of the bag tax bill, said the new figures show that city residents are adapting to the law far more quickly than he or other city officials had expected.I love this--I really do. A simple 5 cent tax--with revenues going towards an environmental cause voters rallied around--and consumer behavior is changed for the better in a truly big way. I love that 5 cents, which makes up a tiny percentage of total cost of your purchase even if you were just buying a bag of chips and a beverage, was enough to make consumers reconsider taking a plastic bag.The tax, one of the first of its kind in the nation, is designed to change consumer behavior and limit pollution in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Under regulations created by the D.C. Department of the Environment, bakeries, delicatessens, grocery stores, drugstores, convenience stores, department stores and any other "business that sells food items" must charge the tax on paper or plastic bags.
We're going to have to wait to see if this trend continues, of course, but the results are nothing short of stunning so far--there are 19 million less plastic bags in a landfill because of this tax.
Let's hope other municipalities--and dare I suggest, states?--are paying attention.
Re: have you guys seen this? 5 cent tax on plastic bags!!!
That's awesome! It makes me happy that people are being coerced into being more eco-friendly this way, and that it worked so well. And think about it - if stores don't have to buy so many plastic bags to give out to customers they can hopefully do something beneficial to everyone, like lowering the prices of local produce by 5 cents a pound and eating that cost, or donating some of that money toward charity.
While I do appreciate the stores that will let me donate my 5 cent per beg refund to a local organization, I'm much more on board with charging 5 cents for a bag.
What about paper bags? Don't most places offer both? Seems to me that then paper bag consumption would just go up, which is not much better.
I work in a retail health/whole grains store and I always get annoyed at people who ask for bags. If there's just one or two things, I'll just hand them back to the person, but people will still ask for bags sometimes. A lot of them tell me it's because it has a handle so they can carry it easier, like carrying a loaf of bread will be so inconvenient.
We pay 5 cents for a plastic bag almost everywhere in Ontario. I'm quite sure it has made those who otherwise didn't care pay attention.
My only beef with this? It allows companies to essentially subsidize their costs of the plastic bags - if it was totally about being environmentally friendly, they could go a lot further.
That is great news! I live in VA, and had no idea DC had that tax. It's really a great system. I also use reuseable bags and get the
from every.store I use them in except Whole Foods. Half the time, the cashier trys to find the UPC, thinking I'm trying to buy them. I'm like, "put the groceries in them!!! Am I seriously the only person who does this?" and I look around, and I am the only person. It drives me nuts. When I do get the cashier to use them, they put only a handful of items in there and since my 2-3 bags "aren't enough" (uhh, they are when I pack them!), they start using plastic bags.
pfal6, my DH's hometown in upstate NY has the same "pay-as-you-throw" garbage collection system as you do, and it's a great system too. Everyone recycles, even DH's father who
at all the green things we do. As soon as governments make it more expensive, even by 5 cents, to be wasteful, everyone stops doing it. I hope more governments pick up on that.
They proposed this in Seattle, not sure if it went through.
Technically we all pay .10 a bag. I mean just about everywhere has a .10 a bag credit, so if you don't bring a bag, you're actually losing .10.
I love living here where it's so eco-friendly. It's so rare to see people not using their own bags, and I feel SO guilty when I forget ours at home. The cashiers know how to pack them, too! They do ask if you're walking so they can distribute the weight more evenly. But if you're driving, they load them up as heavy as they can. It cracks me up, because my favorite cashier will pack one of our bags with the heavy stuff and pass it off to Jeff. And she'll pack our other bag lighter and give it to me.