California State Assembly to Consider Imposing 25-Cent Plastic Bag Fee

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.

Why put a tax on these small plastic grocery bags when we still use plastic garbage bags? Garbage bags take a while to break down too. Now people will just buy large garbage bags for stuff that they used to use grocery bags for. This is so STUPID! I'm so sick and tired of the gov't. dictating what I can be fined as a normal consumer. I prefer paper bags myself but stores don't offer them anymore. I HATE politicians who have nothing else better to do with their time then to come up with .25 per plastic bag user fee!

I agree with Christine. I use plastic grocery bags for garbage bags. If I'm charged 25 cents to use them, I will just buy trash bags that are cheaper than 25 cents each and probably larger too - thus probably being worse to the environment. This would just make things worsein my opinion.

This is BIG government. We as consumers have choices to accept paper, plastic or NEITHER? How hard is this to comprehend people? We don't need the government "banning" ANY product.

Also, plastic is not the worst of the three options. Paper bags, canvas bags and then plastic.

Plastic bags are leaps and bounds better for the environment. The only argument people bring to the table is they kill marine life and our oceans. And, sorry, but that is just not true. Factual information, research and careful analysis has debunked this claims.

Paper bags actually use MORE oil than plastic bags...And plastic bags are made in the USA from NATURAL GAS.

Before we know it, our government will ban aluminum cans, napkins, straws, paper cups, plastic cups, breathing, blinking, bottles both glass and plastic.

Let's get real. Make a difference on your own using common sense...

There it's been said.

I am a store owner and we go through about few hundred plastic bags a day. You wouldn't believe how may people ask for a bag even when buying one small thing that they could carry out. $0.25 tax will make most of then think twice before asking for a bag again. Im all for it, lets pass the law.
only if it was that easy.

More silly nonsense from our socialist House of Parliament... errr, State Assembly.

California is one of the most (if not the most) heavily taxed states in the Union. How much more are we to bear? People and business owners are already leaving in droves this latest debauch will just provide another reason to vacate.

Whoever is left, please turn out the light...