A Tax on Plastic Bags

I will perhaps surprise some people with this statement: I support a tax on plastic bags. Allow me to tell you why.

When I moved up here, I was surprised to find that most grocery stores did not recycle plastic bags. Recently, Shaw's in Fair Haven and the big Price Chopper in Rutland joined Hannaford's in providing recycling bins. As far as I know, Wal Mart is the only other retail business in my area that recycles plastic bags.

Plastic bags take up only 2% of the space in U.S. landfills, but they last virtually forever. I seem to remember reading somewhere that someone is trying to develop a biodegradable plastic bag. Until that shows up, however, disposal will remain a problem.

In any case, a lot of plastic bags never make it to landfills. Instead, they blow across the landscape, contributing to pollution and marring the natural beauty of the land. The production of billions of bags per year requires a lot of energy, too.

Ireland, the Emerald Tiger, started taxing plastic bags in 2002. In a matter of weeks, bag use dropped by 94%. See the February 2, 2008 New York Times article, "Motivated by a Tax, Irish Spurn Plastic Bags." It looks like a win-win situation. Plastic bags all but disappear, and people can avoid the tax by buying one or more reusable canvas bags for their groceries.

I hate to come out in favor of a new tax, but the plastic bag tax appears to be one that actually does some good. On the other hand, if it ever becomes law, I'm not sure how I'll clean up after my dog.

(editor's note:  Our friends over at Vermont Scrapwood make the same point and cite the same New York Times article.  So, okay.  Perhaps this is a good tax and we should roll with it.  But how about a compensating tax cut?  We welcome suggestions from readers.)

Comments

[Mister Guy]

"But how about a compensating tax cut?"

Why? What would be the point of that? Why should this tax be revenue neutral? The point, I think, is basically to tax plastic bags into oblivion. I think the feds did the same thing with certain types of bullets a while back.

[Jon Harrison]

Oh, God. I can't believe I'm going to agree with Mr. Guy. But I am. The idea behind the tax is indeed to get rid of plastic bags entirely.

I don't know, maybe a tax credit for the purchase of the reusable canvas bags that will replace plastic? That won't amount to much, though.

Can someone please tell me what I would use when taking the dog out for a walk, if plastic bags are taxed out of existence?

[James Ehlers]

Dear Mr. Harrison,
Why you would carry it home in your pocket, dry it and use it to heat your home, perhaps. Alternative energy. Electricity and oil have proven so counterproductive to our modern culture, it would seem, for some.

Silly humans, we are.

Sincerely,
James Ehlers

[jason]

No love for the styrofoam meat tray and the clamshell?

[Mister Guy]

How about these?

http://www.doggypoopbag.com/
http://www.handicappedpets.com/acc/flush/
http://www.ecoanimal.com/poopbags.html

Long live Google...

Welcome to the "right" side of the discussion Mr. Harrison...don't be afraid. :) Or you could continue to be a stick in the mud, like Mr. Ehlers.

[James Ehlers]

Dear Mr. Guy,
What is your professional background?

Sincerely,
James Ehlers

[Jon Harrison]

Mr. Ehlers, have you ever tried to carry fresh dog poop in your pocket?

Jason, when it comes to packaging, I'm not a conservative, I'm a reactionary. I want to go back to the pre-plastic, pre-styrofoam era. Let's wrap stuff in paper again. It's renewable and biodegradable. 'Course, that doesn't solve my dog poop problem.

Mr. Guy, I'll look at your links later. Right now I have to start dinner. I do intend to remain stuck in the mud with Mr. Ehlers, however.

[Mister Guy]

Science...wouldn't you like to know which one?

[James Ehlers]

Dear Mister Guy,
Not really. I suppose given the nature of many of your previous responses on this site I should not be surprised by this latest. I would be interested in continuing the dialogue should you have a change of heart.

Thank you for your consideration.

Mr. Harrison,
If you do not like plastic bags, you could consider seeking a legislator to sponsor a bill banning them. If they are that bad for us, we should not profit from their use--utilizing the proceeds to expand a government that currently cannot meet its obligations.

Sincerely,
James Ehlers

[jason]

"I want to go back to the pre-plastic, pre-styrofoam era. Let's wrap stuff in paper again."

Same here.

If you ban bags, VT will collect penalty fees from those not complying. This will almost never happen. If taxation eliminates most use then actual profit would be negligible.

[Jon Harrison]

I wanted to respond to your last comment, Mr. Ehlers. I wouldn't want the government to impose a ban on plastic bags. How in God's name would we enforce it? Bag police? No, not a good idea.

The tax allows people to keep using bags if they want to, while avoiding the creation of an enforcement mechanism (the last thing we need). I would liken it to bottle deposit laws, which have worked very well.

I spend alot of time outdoors biking, running and walking. I can't begin to tell you what a difference bottle deposit laws have made to the amount of broken glass and plastic bottles on the roadside. It's like night and day. Almost the only bottles you see as litter any more are the ones that don't have a deposit.

Bottle deposit laws are a small imposition on business, true. But the social good far outweighs the inconvenience to businesses and consumers. I think a plastic bag tax would do the same, as the Irish experience seems to show.

One of the biggest mistakes we make as political beings and thinking beings is to believe that our ideology is always right, the other guy's (or gal's) always wrong. No system devised by human beings can be complete and infallible. I know our side is right almost all of the time, but we'd be foolish to forget the "almost." Who can say through what door wisdom may walk?

Mr. Guy, I would be curious to know what branch of science you specialize in.

[Mister Guy]

I bet there won't be any "proceeds" from this new tax. The point, again, is to tax them into oblivion, which has been done before in many different ways.

It's one that affects you everyday Mr. Harrison...you probably curse more often than you praise it too. Aren't riddles fun? :)

Well, we apparently already have "trash police" in VT BTW...ugh...

[Jon Harrison]

"Words should convey meaning," Churchill once said. You'd do well to remember that, Mr. Guy.

[James Ehlers]

Dear Mr. Harrison,
Are you suggesting then that we would get our 17 cents per bag back when we would recycle them?

Much of what government purports to do is in our best interest. If this were the case, why then has poverty not been eradicated and people motivated to prosper of their own accord?

Sincerely,
James

PS Living on the side of a state road as I do, I retrieved not one plastic bag from my yard last summer. On the other hand, the cans and bottles were too numerous to count. It would seem the open container law trumps the nickel deposit. Go figure.

The problem in this state is education, corrections and health care spending. Plastics bags are a distraction from the real issues.

[Jon Harrison]

Well, Mr. Ehlers, I can't deny that the fate of Western Civilization does not hang on what we decide to do about plastic bags. Ditto for our little Vermont. You are quite right about the big issues we face.

Were the bottles and cans you picked up in your yard deposit or non-deposit items? As I mentioned, I have seen a tremendous decrease in the number of bottles and cans on the roadsides since deposit laws came in. Jogging used to be like an obstacle course, as I had to really work to avoid stepping on the broken bottles and glass. Now I almost never see any. It's not that no one litters anymore, but that there's almost always someone who'll pick up the bottles and cans so that they can collect the deposit. Perhaps because you're on a state road, you don't have people who'll stop and pick up the stuff. I didn't mean to imply that deposit laws are 100% effective. Overall, though, the change has been very noticeable to me.

As far as plastic bags are concerned, the idea is that people would be deterred from using them by the tax, not that they would recycle them for a deposit. The Irish experience, as I mentioned, showed a 94% drop in bag usage very soon after the tax was instituted. I wouldn't expect you to find many bags in your yard, as the wind carries them here, there and everywhere. They can be a problem for some wildlife, as well as marring the landscape.

[James Ehlers]

Dear Mr. Harrison,
While your position is emotionally compelling, the idea of using taxes as a form of punishment is not one that sits well with me. Think carbon tax. Taxes should be used to fund essential government activities, in my opinion, not social engineering nor behavior modification programs.

If a behavior is deemed contrary to the public good by the public, outlaw it. Please don't grow government, thereby creating yet another problem.

You don't like plastic bags. Another "conservative" does not like big houses. Another "conservative" does not like SUVs. Another, bicycles. I have heard it all from "conservatives" and "liberals". You get my point. We need to stop using government as a weapon to impose ourselves on others.

Tolerance is an essential component of our liberty.

And while you have presented the positives associated with your proposal, you have not presented us with the negatives associated with the alternatives, such as the habitat destruction associated with crops necessary to supply the fiber for cloth bags, increased use of chemicals at paper mills for paper bags, etc. Perhaps the balance sheet will reveal your proposal to be a good one, but I, for one, would still like to see that sheet.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,
James Ehlers

[Cairn Cross]

although old this article was a very interesting assessment (non scientific) of the problem with plastic bags. I remembered reading it years ago and looked it up. Only an abstract available online
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2004/01/12/040112fa_fact_frazier

[Mister Guy]

I agree...we have too many non-violent offenders in jail...it costs too much money and it's pointless. We can't even house them all in-state.

Taxes have been used for many things over the years other than just to fund govt. functions...get over it. Taxing plastic bags into oblivion doesn't increase govt. one bit. We don't need to "tolerate" ourselves into oblivion IMO. How is going back to the way things were before plastic bags a negative to the environment? And since when do you even give a damn about the environment Mr. Ehlers??

[Mister Guy]

This is timely:
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/02/05/6856/
"The World’s Rubbish Dump: A Garbage Tip That Stretches From Hawaii to Japan"

[Jon Harrison]

Mr. Ehlers, I sympathize with you and agree almost entirely. But I do make an occasional exception, and the idea of a plastic bag tax is one. Again, the tax can be avoided by simply switching from plastic bags to something else.

I understand and respect your view, even though I deviate from it slightly.