Bye Bye Plastic Bags

The use of plastic grocery bags is nearly non-existent in Ireland after a tax has made it socially unacceptable to use them.

In 2002, Ireland passed a tax on plastic bags; customers who want them must now pay 33 cents per bag at the register. There was an advertising awareness campaign. And then something happened that was bigger than the sum of these parts.

Within weeks, plastic bag use dropped 94 percent. Within a year, nearly everyone had bought reusable cloth bags, keeping them in offices and in the backs of cars. Plastic bags were not outlawed, but carrying them became socially unacceptable — on a par with wearing a fur coat or not cleaning up after one’s dog.

This is an example of how a tax can be useful to promote positive behavior. It is a common sense solution to a problem and would in the end save money, oil, and help our environment.

Last year at a breakfast with local Democrats where I was chatting with a local elected official and the discussion turned to plastic bags. He said that he was driving on the highway one day and a plastic bag blew across the road. He wasn't in a hurry, so he stopped and picked it up. He glanced in the ditch and found about a half dozen more.

This got the group thinking about things that could be done to limit the use of the plastic bags, resuse them, or encourage the use of cloth bags. A fee on the bags was brought up and but the consensus among the group was that the no-tax crowd would throw a hissy fit about the idea of a tax or a fee on the use of plastic bags.