Motivated by a Tax, Irish Spurn Plastic Bags

[groovedaddy]

DUBLIN — There is something missing from this otherwise typical bustling cityscape. There are taxis and buses. There are hip bars and pollution. Every other person is talking into a cellphone. But there are no plastic shopping bags, the ubiquitous symbol of urban life.

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.

“When my roommate brings one in the flat it annoys the hell out of me,” said Edel Egan, a photographer, carrying groceries last week in a red backpack.

Drowning in a sea of plastic bags, countries from China to Australia, cities from San Francisco to New York have in the past year adopted a flurry of laws and regulations to address the problem, so far with mixed success. The New York City Council, for example, in the face of stiff resistance from business interests, passed a measure requiring only that stores that hand out plastic bags take them back for recycling.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/02/world/europe/02bags.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

[robinlynne]

1. and the answers are so simple....

[MADem]

2. Plastic bags have their uses--it's how the plastic is MADE that is the issue.

There are times when nothing but a plastic bag will do--wet, soppy, stinky dog shit to pick up? Yeah, that red backpack will do the trick!! NOT.

It is possible to make a plastic bag that biodegrades, and a few companies actually do that.

That said, reusing bags for the grocery purchases IS a good idea. We have a few dozen of those sacks, and use them regularly. They hold more stuff, and are easier to carry and store in the trunk (they stay upright) as well.

[gristy]

3. terrific

Was reading the article, came here to see if it was posted already, and indeed it was.