Plastic bag tax

originally posted by: Phage
a reply to: mysterioustranger

We have a deposit system.
Pay 6 cents, get 5 cents when you return the container.

It would be funny if the state of California couldn't recycle plastic bags because they contain a chemical known to the state of California to cause capitalism.

originally posted by: MyToxicTash
a reply to: BrianFlanders

Are you a bit slow?.

No. I'm just not British.

originally posted by: Phage
a reply to: mysterioustranger

We have a deposit system.
Pay 6 cents, get 5 cents when you return the container.

G'day, Phage. Not in Michigan yet...but a great idea cause they are tossed everywhere you look on the streets and lawns.

originally posted by: mamabeth
a reply to: JAGStorm

What I more concerned about is taxing for these bags.I think
the only thing not being taxed yet is air we breathe.

That's the carbon tax and they're working on it.

originally posted by: CharlesT
Forget the tax. Plastic bags need to be banned nationwide...

Do you know why we have them ... nationwide? It's because we used to have paper bags that were far more environmentally friendly, but then too many people said - "Paper bags need to be banned nationwide ..."

Then they were, and now we have this plastic problem.

I wager a guess than if we ban plastic ones nationwide, none of the alternatives will end up being as cheap or as environmentally friendly as everyone tells us they will be, so pretty soon, everyone will think those need either taxing or banning ... nationwide.

originally posted by: Phage
Our single use plastic bag law came into effect a couple of years ago. Not a tax. A prohibition.

It took a little while to get used to putting my grocery bags back into my car. But I did.

Portland outlawed them, so now it is paper or your own bags. Still America is rather low on the list of plastic pollution as we are a about .28 MMT/yr and China is almost 9 MMT/yr with about 3.5 MMT/yr of that going into our oceans... About 8 MMT/yr is the world's total going in to the oceans.

a reply to: ketsuko

Wrong the cloth bag I use cost me a quid is good for the environment and has lasted me 18 months.
Everyone has gotten used to them around here and yes I have noticed the lack of them blowing in the streets.
I poo pooed it when they first said 5p for every plastic bag but it has worked in the UK.

You can't drown a bag of cats if it's made of Hemp though!

We have "Bags for life", here in Ireland. But they're plastic too.
I sometimes just browse for a cardboard box to fit my food into, so maybe flat-packed boxes could be introduced?

Also you could just never leave the shopping mart...

originally posted by: RoryRahl23

I sometimes just browse for a cardboard box to fit my food into, so maybe flat-packed boxes could be introduced?
.

I do that all the time ..... when the staff are filling up I take one of their

empty boxes or better still some supermarkets display their fruit and veg

in the trays they come in and they are ideal!

a reply to: MyToxicTash

Gotta watch the cloth ones. They harbor bacteria like salmonella.

We have this down under now, each plastic bag has a 15c charge (or something like that)

the problem is, the supermarket uses plastics to individually wrap fruit and vegetables now
they also just started a promotion where kids can buy small plastic toys designed on their actual products.

this isnt about the environment, this is about getting more $

So get a re-usable bag if that tax is so unbearable. How hard is that?

originally posted by: Toothache
So get a re-usable bag if that tax is so unbearable. How hard is that?

About as hard as minding your own business, I guess.

a reply to: ketsuko

Ever heard of putting it in the washing machine.....durrrr.

originally posted by: JAGStorm
Yet again Illinois is taxing something. This time they want to tax plastic bags, but Chicago would be exempt.
They would be the first in the nation to have this tax.

www.illinoispolicy.org...

No U.S. state currently collects a statewide plastic bag tax. Link’s 7-cent checkout bag charge would be distributed as follows: 2 cents per bag flows to the retailer 2 cents per bag flows to the state’s general revenue fund 3 cents per bag flows to a new state-level Checkout Bag Tax Fund

So here is my problem with this. Most retailers already budget in bag fees. They are in essence double dipping.

Most bags they make today aren't worth 1/2 a cent. Very few retailers have bags that are even re-usable anymore. They are so darn flimsy they barely make one trip. We have one grocery chain here that makes super thick bags. You can use them at least a dozen or so times. Maybe they need to make the bags more reusable. The reusable bags that stores sell are terrible. They are barely fabric and are known to harbor e coli and other pathogens.

My solutions............... Hemp bags, tons and tons of hemp bags. When they have finished their shelf life customers can compost them.
Or other natural material. I know that cotton can be bad environmentally, so maybe something like hemp, jute, burlap.
Maybe we can even figure a way to use kudzu or other invasive plant and make bags out of them.

OR..
Maybe we have plastic pods and carriers and you are charged a rental fee, but get that back when you bring them back in.

Or..
We go back to the old days and use baskets, glass and wood. I remember when most foods were in glass, and it tasted sooooo much
better! Plastic and food is a bad mix!

Governments all over the western world are turning their tax raising efforts to getting tax off the massess. THis is because such taxes are laregly discretionary in that they only apply to the masses. While tehcnically they apply to everyone, we and they know that anyone who is a someone or who knows someone in high or low places, can just make a phone call or have a conversation over coffee and make the tax go away.

Easy; they get the tax but done offend the rich by making it easy to make it easy for them to make it go away.

a reply to: mysterioustranger

Have you heard about the move to make plastic water bottles returnable for a $.05-.10¢ deposit?

They have that system here in South Australia and it works an absolute treat . Mind you for the most part people here do not litter but i can guarantee if a can is tossed out a car window it will be picked up . Its a great scheme and has worked well .
Go to 3.40 , that's the add that really started to change things .

a reply to: Toothache

That's what we do here in the UK. 10p per heavy duty plastic bag, some shops even replace them for free when they wear out.

Failing that, most people now have their own tote bag or similar, something to eliminate the need for buying bags every time.

As you say, it's not hard.

CX.

We need to do everything we can to reduce plastic waste. Eliminating plastic bags would be relatively easy and should be a no-brainer. Plastic bottles and diapers should also be on the radar.

I've read that 8.3 billion metric tons of plastic has been produced in the last six decades with only 90% having been recycled. When you also consider most (not all) of the plastic ever produced is still on the planet and then figure in population growth, the numbers are astronomical for future generations. Some drastic changes need to be made right now.

originally posted by: mtnshredder
We need to do everything we can to reduce plastic waste. Eliminating plastic bags would be relatively easy and should be a no-brainer. Plastic bottles and diapers should also be on the radar.

Lol!!! My children were brought up on 'terry towelling' nappies ..... boiling

and hand or laundret washing.

Washing lines full blowing in the wind or huddled on a clothes horse around

an open fire in the winter. A real reason for early 'potty training' .


If my time was now ...... would I chose ^^^that^^^ again or disposables?


No contest /smh

a reply to: eletheia

The fruit and veg' carriers would definitely be better, but if I tried to take one of those out of the shopping centers around where I live I'd get tackled to the floor.