Evanston aldermen tonight will consider a proposal from Alderman Coleen Burrus to impose a tax on the paper and plastic bags people carry home from the grocery store and other shops — in an effort to coerce shoppers into using reusable bags instead. Ponzi thinks the idea is half-baked.
Cartoon: Bag tax beefs
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Plastic Bags
While I personally use Jewel bags as garbage bags as my form of recycling (rather than buying plastic bags to serve the same function)…and it's cheaper!
I think that this bag tax is hardly expensive. Come on, 5 cents?
Second, Mr. Ponzi, while you are quite good at criticizing and finding fault, how about exercising a little creativity and offering a solution or two?
Mayor Daley got shot down
Mayor Daley got shot down entirely when he proposed a tax on plastic-bottled water, rather than his idea being replaced with a system of return deposit bottles/cans. Now Evanston Now's cartoon mocks attempts to reduce the single-use plastic bag and suggests that the idea would be a blow to low-income residents.
Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Vermont, Maine and New Hampshire all have 5 – cent return deposits on cans, plastic and glass bottles, with a high level of participatiion. They have reduced trash collection costs, made roadside littering less prevalent and, additionally, provided a source of ready change for children who offer to return bottles and cans for their neighbors. Many communities have a credit for those who bring their own recyclable bags (including their plastic bags that are being used again) to the grocery store; others charge for bags. Nova Scotians (all income levels) recycle almost everything. We can learn, and it is patronizing to suggest that residents — whether upper, middle or lower-income– will not change habits to take advantage of the savings for themselves and the community. A charge for bags (or a credit for those who bring their own bags) is a modest start. We should and could do much more in Illinois.