California State Assembly to Consider Imposing 25-Cent Plastic Bag Fee
by Jeremy Elton Jacquot, Los Angeles on 04.12.08
Image courtesy of swanksalot via flickr
Following the unceremonious axing a few months ago of a proposal that would've banned outright the use of plastic bags, several L.A.-based state legislators are once again girding for battle over the introduction of a bill that would impose a 25-cent fee on the use of the offending bags. AB 2829, sponsored by Mike Davis (D-Los Angeles), would use the proceeds from the fee to fund litter prevention and reduction efforts. A competing bill, AB2058, introduced by Lloyd Levine (D-Van Nuys), would only support voluntary reduction measures; as Emerald City's Siel points out in her post on the fee, this meeker measure closely resembles a voluntary plastic bag reduction measure that was enacted by the L.A. County Board of Supervisors.
Predictably, industry officials and lobbyists are coming out of the woodworks (who's ever heard of the Progressive Bag Affiliates of the American Chemistry Council?) to urge legislators to just chill out and wait to see how the existing state law, which calls for recycling, plays out. Thankfully -- at least for now -- the Board of Supervisors has endorsed the tougher bill. We'll see how close California gets to clamping down on the use of plastic bags this Monday when the Assembly's Committee on Natural Resources votes on the measure.
Call us skeptics (and we hope we're wrong on this), but whenever an environmental organization describes a proposed bill as the "toughest statewide policy we've seen to date," we worry it will either languish on the floor of the Assembly or get shot down outright.
Via ::Emerald City: Cali Assembly committee considers 25 cent plastic bag fee (blog), ::Daily News: Lawmaker urges 25-cent fee for plastic grocery bags (news website)
See also: ::Ban or No Ban: The Debate over Plastic Bags in LA, ::China Launches Crackdown on Plastic Bags
This sounds like an example of big government to me.
Excellent Idea, I already try not to take bags when I'm shopping, I buy 1 or two items and they want to bag it, why can't I just carry it out of the store like I carried it to the front counter.
I have yet to try to bring my own reusable bag into a store though, for those times when I buy to many items to carry. Maybe I should ask management first, I just don't' want to package it up in my own bag and have them think I'm stealing or something.
I just got back from the store with about 20lb of groceries. Happily, I had remembered to take my tote bag, and thus avoided using the half dozen or so plastic bags the store would have thrust upon me.
This is an example of where "big government" would do us a favor by banning or placing fees on an environmentally unacceptable practice.
Help the planet. Use your own reusable bag.
I personally think it's a good idea as I bring my own bags oftentimes. The times I don't, I really wouldn't mind paying the extra quarter, if I knew it was going to go to something useful. But I really doubt, at 25 cents a bag, this bill is going to go anywhere. Not very many people would endorse the concept seeing as how you can buy them for less than 3 cents a piece- and the retailers probably get them for much less. If they were to drop it to say, five cents or even ten cents, it could cover litter and reduction efforts adequately and not seem like another profit scheme that the state will divert to other interests. But basically, the quickest way it'll fail is someone will point out it's another tax, and in this current economy, that's enough for it to fail.
I think that imposing a twenty five cent tax on plastic bags sounds like a good idea, on paper. It seems to me that the government is trying to make this idea seem all well and good when in reality, it's nothing more than a scheme. As dredg, I wouldn't mind paying the extra money if it would be going towards something productive, however, I do believe that the government as other plans. Like a said, it's a great idea on paper, but that's about it.
this has been done with great success all over the world, and is long overdue here. Forward thinking retailers have already been doing this (Ikea off the top of my head, there are others).
I drove into las vegas on a cross-country trip; the debris field, mostly of plastic bags tangled on the highway fences and tumbleweeds, preceeded the city by at least 100 miles.
I would welcome anything like this that would make people think a little longer before putting another disposable bag into circulation. Remember that every piece of plastic ever made that hasn't been burned still exists (with very few exceptions).
This will be great in affluent neighborhoods but don't expect this to work out in the hood. Some manager running a store with high theft is going to let people walk in with their own bags. Uh uh.
I can't stand looking a bags whipping around a branch in some wooded area as much a the next guy. I also heard of these giant plastic islands of garbage in the Pacific.
Why can't people change the world without FINING people?!
Who uses plastic bags? Poor people. Who do I see using plastic bags? Poor old ladies who have to drag their groceries onto the bus. So you fine her $1 for her 4 extra bags and then that's her bus fare.
It's easy for middle class folks to say everyone should use their own Trader Joe's canvas bags -- your life is a lot less chaotic, you don't need extra plastic bags, and you can afford the $1 tax.
Is a $1 fine going to keep people from throwing their bags on the street when they're done with them?
I'm sick of rich people fining me for everything that THEY can afford and calling it environmental progress -- a tax for driving in New York, a tax for not buying an expensive Hybrid, a tax for using plastic freaking bags! Maybe if you used that fine money to provide one reusable bag per customer. I mean, without plastic bags what are the yuppies going to use to remove their expensive dog's poop from the lawn outside my tiny apartment?
The only thing this would do would be to make people switch to paper bags, which produce far more GHGs in their production. What a dumb idea.
Recently, I've started to use my backpack instead of reuseable bags. I still have a reuseable bag that I bring with me, but in general backpacks can hold more and are easier to carry because the weight goes on your back. Another thing you could do is bring a duffle bag.
About time that they did something like this. I also think they need to start taxing (majorly) non-recyclable plastics. It'll make suppliers and consumers think twice about packaging anything in non-recyclables.
Seattle is considering a similar fee: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004324267_bagfee03m.html
I'm all for it, especially since the city is talking about giving out a reusable bag to every household, too.
Who uses plastic bags? Poor people. Who do I see using plastic bags? Poor old ladies who have to drag their groceries onto the bus. So you fine her $1 for her 4 extra bags and then that's her bus fare.
Actually where I live and grocery shop I see more people with resuable bags at the bus stop because they and easier to carry heavy things in and all too often the ones I see with a cartload of pleastic bags are the ones loading them into thier suburbans and hummers.
It is a wonderful marketing opportunity for an advertising agency. If people don't want to pay the 25 cents then they can get a free bag with some logo on it and serve as an individual billboard.
For a couple quarters a company can buy cloth bags in bulk and have them print screened. Given the fact these bags last months it'll be a lot cheaper means of advertising than buying a billboard.
this plastic bag tax is ridiculous . its not going to make a difference , cant the govt help the environment without taxing??? i reuse plastic bags as garbage bags and there is no way im going to pay 25 cents for a stupid little bag when i could go to the dollar store and get 6 bigger bags for a dollar. The govt doesnt thnk about us the people . we dont have enough to pay for 4 dollars/gal. of gas , homes that we cant afford to pay anymore because of foreclosure, and now plastic bags!? WTF! the govt doesnt think of us low income people because they have 140,000 dollar salaries! its ridiculous if anybody thinks that this will actually make a difference! The world will eventually come to and end people deal with it quit trying to find loop holes!
I think this is just about the best idea ever! The time is now. I still see about 30-1 that are bringing their own bags to the store. I usually like to count. This tax would clean up CA big time- can you imagine how much revenue we would have for other important stuff too! GREAT IDEA!
Doug Lober
ReuseThisBag.com
There are better solutions than carrying bags in car. You don't need bags at all. See http://www.autocarts.net for a clever alternative to bags. This is the best solution to the problem.