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Plastic Bag Tax/Ban Discussion
The Challenge• 102 billion plastic shopping bags each year —more than
500 per consumer.• Named by Guinness World Records as "the most ubiquitous
consumer item in the world,“• Globally, we use one million plastic bags a minute• Environmental hazard• Disposal nightmare
– Found all over landfills – Gum up the sorting equipment used by most recycling facilities
"The plastic bag has come to represent the collective sins of the age of plastic," says Susan Freinkel, author of Plastic: A Toxic Love Story.
The Response
• In recent years, a growing number of U.S. communities have introduced some 200 anti‐bag measures.
• In 2007, San Francisco became the first American City/County to ban plastic bags
States• Florida• Connecticut• Alaska• California• Hawaii• Illinois• Iowa• Maine• Maryland• Michigan • Minnesota• Missouri• Nevada• New Hampshire
• New Jersey• New York• North Carolina• Ohio• Oregon• Pennsylvania• Rhode Island• Texas • Vermont• Virginia• Washington• West Virginia• Wisconsin
Counties• Santa Clara County, CA• District of Columbia (Washington, DC)• Hawaii County, HI• Maui County, HI• Lake County, IL• Marshall County, IA• Albany County, NY• Nassau County, NY• Rockland County, NY• Suffolk County, NY• City and County of Philadelphia, PA• City and County of San Francisco, CA• Montgomery County, MD
Taxes or Bans?Taxes• Montgomery County, Md. required all vendors to charge 5 cents for each paper or plastic bag used to carry goods. To fund County Water Quality Protection Charge
Bans• Marin County, California passed an ordinance barring retailers in the unincorporated areas of the county from distributing plastic carryout bags and to charge customers a minimum of 5cents for paper carry out bags.
Opposition• In the United States, the plastics industry launched a concerted campaign
to derail and defeat anti‐bag measures nationwide.• Last year, the American Chemistry Council weighed in to defeat AB 1998, a
California proposal to ban the use of plastic bags in supermarkets, liquor stores and convenience stores statewide.
• The industry has sued every city or county in California that has passed anti‐bag legislation, demanding that the local governments pay for expensive, independent studies on the environmental impact of eliminating plastic bags.
• Necessary for transporting many essential items• Calling taxes hidden fees on grocery bills • Creating new government bureaucracies• Impinging upon individual liberty
Opinion Articles
• Plastic bag tax = More government control– Denver County, Colorado
• Plastic bag taxes = simply more government revenue generation opportunities in tough times– Los Angeles County
Plastic bag taxes could make us sick!
Montgomery County, MD• Epidemiologists have traced an outbreak of norovirus in October 2011 to a reusable bag, where the virus was growing inside the bag. Nationally, other sickness outbreaks have been linked to the use of cloth bags, where they have been mandated as a replacement for plastic bags.
Considerations?
• Has your county considered a bag tax or ban?• Do plastic bag taxes or bans make sense for your communities?
• How strong are the arguments for bans or taxes?