Tax the Bags

The Polyethylene Diet courtesy of Tree Hugger

         Plastic bags have a bad rap. We’re constantly barraged with images of them flitting through our city streets and into the mouths of our turtles. So, in an effort to clean up the streets, cities across the world are banning their use. On June 10^th 2012, Toronto joined the ranks of the uber-environmentally conscious. Even in Texas, a state whose governor argues that environmental rules kill jobs, various cities including South Padre, Brownsville, and Fort Stockton have jumped on the anti-plastic bandwagon.

         While I admire the enthusiastic environmentalism, I think these cities need to be careful about the alternatives they are promoting. If customers decide to start using instead a sturdy, reusable bag (whether fashion chic or purely functional…see below), then excellent! But if paper is still an option, then quite the contrary. Boustead Consulting & Associates Ltd. prepared a report for the Progressive Bag Alliance. According to their findings, paper bags use more fossil fuels and fresh water to produce, require more energy to produce and recycle, have a larger CO2 footprint, and result in more acid rain emissions than plastic bags.

          So what about Austin? It’s a city that uses “263 million plastic bags a year” which “cost the city and taxpayers $850,000 a year to clean up as letter” (Austin American Statesman). In August 2011, the Austin City Council directed staffers to “begin writing a plastic bag ban, with the help of retailers, environmental groups and others” but little has been done since (Austin American Statesman). 

        Here’s my suggestion. I agree with many retailers that an all-out ban of paper (and plastic) would probably result in confusion among customers. In addition, it would unnecessarily punish those that actually choose to reuse plastic bags (when I get them I use them to line a bathroom trashcan) and those who, in the rush of their daily lives, forget their bags. But I think that those individuals who use these bags should have to pay a tax, much like the one Toronto implemented prior to this year’s plastic ban. The amount of the tax is up for debate, but I think $0.10 would provide sufficient incentive to use reusable bags yet not inordinately punish those who forgot their bags. Funds generated through this tax should be directed to an environmental program for preserving Austin nature and wildlife. As additional incentive, I agree with Thomas Bauwens (spokesman for the trade group Plastics Europe) that we “grant customers bonus points on loyalty cards if they decline bags” (New York Times).

        As for the success of previous plastic bag taxes, Ireland implemented a $0.20 tax in 2002 that resulted in a “reduction of about 94 percent in the use of plastic bags” (New York Times). In Washington D.C., a mere $0.05 tax in 2009 resulted in “an 80% reduction in bag use” by 2010 (plasticbaglaws.org).

Fashion Chic Bags by Ecorazzi    

 Functional Reusable Bag by Simply + Green Solutions