Should We Pay to Choose Plastic?

Dec. 9, 2003 — -- Plastic shopping bags, which cost less than a penny to produce, are about as easy-come as they come. The problem is they're not so easy-go. Now, some say it's time the bags were taxed — or even banned.

Estimates show Americans use some 14 billion plastic shopping bags every year — or about 425 bags for every American. The bags flutter from tree limbs, get balled up and stuffed under kitchen sinks and fill landfills where they take 10 to 20 years to decompose.

"Just the other day I was driving to the airport and started counting them. I stopped counting at 200," says Jerry Drake, a city council member in Bethel, Alaska, who is spearheading an effort to ban stores from handing out plastic bags to customers. "With our flat lands and high winds, it's a real problem."

So far at least three towns in Alaska have banned the free distribution of the bags to customers. Instead, shopkeepers bag groceries in paper sacks or in reusable bags that customers bring with them.

And in California, the state House of Representatives is due to take up a bill this January that proposes imposing a 2-cent tax for each of the estimated 10.8 billion plastic bags that Californians take out from stores every year.

Irish Spark

Efforts to clear plastic bags from landscapes started abroad a year and a half ago when Ireland imposed a 15-cent tax on the bags. According to government reports last August, the move has reduced plastic bag consumption by 95 percent, or more than 1 million bags.

Taiwan and Bangladesh have since adopted a similar measures, while Australia, Scotland and the city of Shanghai, China, are also likely to begin taxing plastic bag consumers.

Mark Murray, director of Californians Against Waste, is hoping the trend abroad may spark change in this country. "Sometimes these things take a little time to percolate," he said. "The fact that we see other countries taking the initiatives, I think may urge states to take action on their own. Hopefully it will begin in California."

Plastic bags represent one part of the 100 billion pounds of resin made every year. Research suggests only about 5 percent of this plastic is returned for recycling, while 45 percent go to landfills and the rest remains as products or is unaccounted for trash.

While the thin plastic grocery bags contain little plastic resin per bag, their lightness makes them vulnerable to winds and breezes that carry them across landscapes like plastic tumbleweeds.

Who Should Pay?

California's proposed bill would aim to reduce the blight, but the legislation is already under attack as unfair and impractical.

Supermarket chains are concerned about the extra calculation that would be needed at check out to charge customers for each bag they use. To do so, they claim, would require significant changes to their computer-driven check-out systems.

As an alternative, Murray says lawmakers are considering taxing plastic manufacturers for every bag they produce and send to California stores. Kevin Kelly, president of the California Bag and Film Alliance explains his group is opposed to the tax due to concerns that out of state or foreign bag manufacturers might avoid the tax and then ship their bags to California stores.

Kelly's group has put together a proposal that would encourage the use of bags made from recycled plastic and start a public information campaign to encourage bag recycling and reuse.

Recycling plastic bags has become an easier option now that demand for the plastic has gone up with the growing popularity of plastic lumber products, Kelly adds. But promoting recycling and reuse might not cut it since the state in is dire need of new funds.

Due to federal laws that call for eliminating plastic debris flow into the marine environment, California will need to refit storm drains throughout the state at a cost of some $300 million. Tax from plastic bags could be a direct source of money for the project — as the plastic bag tax in Ireland has been used for environmental clean up.

Credits vs. Bans

When New York City considered a bill to tax plastic bags this fall, the measure failed and was replaced with an initiative to begin city-wide recycling of the bags. Murray is hoping the urgent financial need in California might help push through a tax on the bags.

"That's a tangible, very real cost burden on public agencies that is driving this issue," he said.

As some push for legislation to curb use of plastic bags, scientists are working to develop plastic that can degrade easily in composts. Frank Ruiz of Heritage Plastics in Dallas, Texas, reports there are some truly biodegradable plastic bags available now, but because they cost three to five times more than standard plastic bags, they're not yet a viable option.

"The technology is coming along and that could lower the price soon," Ruiz said.

Meanwhile, some stores have taken the matter into their own hands. Supermarket chains, including Shoprite, in the New York-New Jersey area, and Hannafords, in Maine, offer a 2-cent credit for every reusable bag a customer brings to the counter. And, according to the Film and Bag Federation, nearly half of U.S. supermarkets offer plastic bag recycling.

But in Alaska, Drake is hoping for nothing less than an all-out ban.

"I've got to admit, the plastic bags are handy as heck," he said. "But I'm tired of looking at them."