Plastic Bag Fees Stalling for Economics or Politics?
The New York Times reports that various plastic bag-reduction initiatives around the country are stalling – or flatlining – due to economics. The plans in the works in places like Seattle, San Francisco and New York have included charges of 5 to 20 cents per plastic bag – and in some cases, paper bags – at, for example, grocery stores.
The intent is – was – to foster a reusable bag culture and wean consumers off their plastic bag dependency. Now, critics are saying the rough economic road we’re on these days is cause enough to halt progress of those initiatives – and related legislative proposals.
Why?
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Don’t confuse me for someone who is financially above the morass here, but if I need, say, five plastic bags per weekly grocery shopping trip and had to pay a nickel for those bags, it’s easy to figure out that buying one of those one-dollar reusables at the checkout counter will quickly earn back its investment.
And I feel certain there’s no one who can’t adjust their grocery list to accommodate the investment. There are countless ways to spend less on a shopping trip. Put the candy bar back and you get a reusable bag that will last and last and last. Put down that six-pack of soda or beer and you have a fistful of reusable bags that will last and last and last and last.
Sure, plenty of people don’t care enough to make those simple, one-time “sacrifices.” But that’s why legislations across the country ever started considering fees and bans on the disposable bags.
What’s halting progress – reducing waste, pollution and, in the case of Connecticut, which proposes $10 million a year from this type of initiative going into the bank account for the Environmental Protection Department – is not the actual impossibility of finances, it’s the politics related to the perception of it.
Source: New York Times
Photo: Paul Keller, Attribution License
We truly live in a society that gives little thought where things come from and what effects everything we do has on the world around us. I’m a South African. In the early 1990’s we jokingly referred to the plastic bag as our national flower; due to littering nearly every tree in both urban, rural and natural settings were draped in these man made floral decorations. It took one man to change our landscape. The then minister of Environmental Affairs, Valli Moosa, introduced the controversial legislation that forced consumers to pay a set amount for all plastic bags. Retailers were no longer allowed to give these bags away free with purchases. The regulation thickness of these bags were increased to make them more durable. Instantly a price tag was placed on rubbish. Discarding a plastic bag was now very much like discarding money. A crazy idea and it worked! We do have the option of buying reusable cloth bags, but most people get along nicely by just reusing the more durable plastic bags. It was a small shift in lifestyle with a very noticeable change in the environment.
If it can be done in Africa, why not in America? People will always be wasteful until it hits them where it hurts. In the pocket. Stop dragging your feet! Make the change now.