Plastic Bags Revisited

Several months ago, I wrote about plastic bags. Recently, they have made the news again, but not because a new city has banned them.

The news I am referring to is from Ireland. The government has done something novel: they have taxed bags but they did not ban them (Read articles from the New York Times and the International Herald Tribune). Not only did they tax them, but they taxed them quite a bit: 33 cents. And the effects have been quite remarkable with over a 90% drop in bag use.

There are several reasons why this approach may be more effective. For starters, it does not lower consumer choice, but makes the bags reflect the true costs (beyond just the money required to produce them, the tax tries to add in the cost of disposal, or rather the space given in a landfill). There may be something to the argument that the tax is too high. I am not able to give estimates of how much a bag will cost to dispose of, but keep in mind most of these plastic bags will not decompose and will thus be present in landfills for thousands of years (perhaps longer).

A second advantage (related to the price), is that the cost of bags is clearly noticeable. When I worked at a grocery store, we would refund 3 cents everytime a customer used their own bags. The idea is similar, but very different. First of all, 3 cents is not a lot of money. Most people didn't care at all, and it did not stop people from asking for double bags (because if they chose not to double bag it was the same price). The monetary impact is also diminished because the 3 cent refund is for cloth bags used - which often hold at least twice as much as plastic bags because they are both bigger and stronger.

The third advantage is for grocery stores who will obviously save a lot of money buying bags and storing them.

A fourth advantage is that they do not rely on stores to buy biodegradable bags. These bags are not all they are cracked up to be. Not only do they contribute to global warming, they do not degrade as fast (if at all) when placed in landfills (which often do not have enough of the necessary oxygen). Unfortunately, many workers at grocery stores do not realize these facts and often tell people that they don't have to feel guilty about using bags anymore (and apparently corporate headquarters was contradicting the scientific evidence out there on the landfill issue). They will break down in composts however.

There are likely more advantages to this approach as well though they may not be measureable (perhaps lineups will move quicker as people pack their own bags (which is a lot more common when they have their own bags as opposed to using the store-provided bags).

For someone who doesn't need an incentive to use their own bags (I've been doing it for almost as long as I've been grocery shopping), I think ideas like this one from Ireland will lead to reduced plastic bag use. It's good to see some governments taking some leadership on the issue (beyond just a blanket ban).

If you think this is a good idea, you could always contact your local representatives and suggest this idea. The more they hear this, the more likely they are to repeat it here.

Or if you don't need to economic incentive, you could just get cloth bags and use them instead.