Community | September 24, 2009 | 9 comments

Plastic Tax!

source: http://www.greenwala.com/my_blog/2416-Plastic-Tax

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AnitaQ
If cigarettes can now have an additional sin tax why should plastic bags be exempt from a sin tax?
  1. groups:
    Community,   Green
  2. tags:
    Green,  Taxes,  Plastic,  Cigarettes,  1 more
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9 comments // Plastic Tax!

  • bombastinator
  • NeutronActivation
    • 0
      NeutronActivation  

    • Cigarettes are used by a small and shrinking minority with no political power. Plastic bags on the other hand are used by 95% of the population and they are used because they are incredibly cheap so cheap that in essence they are valueless. If you want these bags to find their way back for recycling they need a value. I think a better system would involve a small deposit (1 cent per bag) this would make this "trash" valuable enough to collect. You don't see bottles and cans on the side of the road in states where there is a deposit system.

    • 2 years ago
  • bombastinator
  • VickLantz
    • 0
      VickLantz  
    • NeutronActivation:

      I think Ikea charges 5 cents to use the plastic bags and I wish more stores would adopt this policy. Even Costco does not give you plastic bags, they reuse the boxes their packages come in but the big issue with Costco are all the additional packaging for their items.

    • 2 years ago
  • NeutronActivation
    • 0
      NeutronActivation  
    • NeutronActivation:

      We could only hope a small deposit on plastic would do the same. My state doesn't have a deposit system but we do have a free "no sorting necessary " recycling program that covers most of the state. The local police had to arrest people from time to time for stealing peoples full recycling bins when the price of metals went through the roof.

      Overall I think the "Trash to Treasure" idea could work without too much agony on the part of the consumer. There are lots of people who can't be bother to pick up after themselves why not let them pay someone more consciousness to do it for them? I think it is better than a outright tax because it is totally your decision if you pay it. Another benefit of this system is all the money involved always stays in the system, a tax would just go into the general fund and be squandered. This has already happened to the state lottery systems. Originally this money was only to be used for education but soon enough it was just added to the general fund so they can still hold your children's future over your head when they need to raise taxes.

    • 2 years ago
  • bachan
    • 0
      bachan  

    • Good question, I think it's just a leadership issue. Why aren't there ban the bag referendums across all cities in the US?

    • 2 years ago
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