Seattle City Council approves plastic shopping bag fee
"The answer to the question 'paper or plastic?' has officially become 'neither'," Mayor Greg Nickels said in a statement. "The best way to reduce waste is not to create it, and today, we have made that a little easier in Seattle."
City officials estimate Seattle citizens use 360 million paper or plastic bags each year, and believe the ban will cut plastic bag use in half.
Before the fee goes into effect in January, the city plans to distribute at least one free reusable bag per household, and it will consider providing more free bags to low-income shoppers.
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- jhaber
- added this
- added July 29, 2008
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Good for you, Seattle!
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Hmmm... I'm in Seattle, and I'm wishing they'd banned bags, instead of surcharging them. I do believe in 'user fees', but in this case, it's once again going to inconvenience poorer people, while rich people can simply pay the fee... I dunno -- what do y'all think??
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The reusable bags at my local grocery store are only .99 , so everyone can afford them.
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- rabidlemur
- 11 months ago
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thank you once again Washington for leading the way in the fight for what is right.
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- culinarian
- 11 months ago
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What happened to the kid In Canada that found a bacteria that can decompose plastic bags within 3 months? O-o
http://current.com/items/88975207_teen_finds_way_to_decompose_plastic_bags_in_ju...
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That is very smart, because i surely would be saying "just throw it all in the cart, i don't need a bag"
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This may be what this country needs to make this kind of transition and to encourage people to use paper, which is biodegradable and recyclable. Paper bags can also be used as recycling bags.
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This is racism,
They are tageting drug dealers and zip lock bags!
god bless big oil
god bless america -
this is a good start. one day, i hope to see everyone in the habit of bringing reusable bags to the grocery store.
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Check out this Pod: "Plastic is Murder"
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- joshuaheller
- 11 months ago
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It sounds good but its just a way for supermarkets to make more money. What about those in the lower class that dont need any more burden when it comes to putting food on their tables?
The Seattle government should hire local labor to produce mass amounts of reusable grocery bags and distribute them to all residents
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- milwaukeeprogressive
- 11 months ago
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This is awesome... charge you some extra for wanting to take a bag home. Lol. This will definitely force people to bring their own bags. Although, shouldn't the fee be higher than $0.20? They should make it $5 or something! =P
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How is charging 20 cents going to help solve the plastic bag issue?! They should be taken out of stores. Period. People - learn how to deal with it!
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That's a beautiful picture of the Earth.
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Charging people for their bags is stupid because they will pay for it. Ban them and don't give the idiots of America the benefit of the doubt.
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- huffamoose2k
- 11 months ago
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now if only the rest of washington could participate...
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- jakes_green
- 11 months ago
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I agree with a total ban rather than a surcharge. How about selling reusable grocery bags at the store rather than the plastic bags...that is basically what they are doing, selling the plastic bags.
My reusable bags are on their way from onebagatatime.com. I got ten for $25.
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- samanthadian
- 11 months ago
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I've been staying in Zurich for the past 2 months and all the groceries stores just use paper bags. What's wrong with that?
And the only bags you can use for your bin at home are ones you buy at the checkout in the supermarket. These cost CHF20 for 10. That's £1 ($2) each! I can tell you, it doesn't half make you recycle and compost more!
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- constantdisregard
- 11 months ago
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seems as though lots of places are starting to deal with the plastic bag problem
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I agree that the charge should be greater than 20 cents. At least people will start to think about reusing plastic bags. One city has done something positive, hopefully this will catch on throughout the rest of the country. The money received for the bags should be donated to organizations which work with environmental issues.
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- phantomleader311
- 11 months ago
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awesome. Most of the stores in the NE sell their own bags for $1 and they hold a lot more than plastic/paper anyhow. Love them.
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Conservation & Source Reduction
Reduction of the source of pollution, usually from manufacturing with petrochemicals or their derivatives, is a cost-cutting waste control method often called for by environmentalists.
Whether the source of pollution is CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) from refrigeration, spray cans, computers, tritium and plutonium produced for military uses, or the sulfuric acids used by papermakers, the goal is reducing the source of pollution.
In the supermarket when you are asked to choose paper or plastic for your bags, you are faced with an environmental dilemma: paper from trees that were cut, or plastic bags made from fossil fuel and chemicals. With a third choice available - hemp hurd paper - one could choose a biodegradable, durable paper from an annually renewal source - the cannabis hemp plant.
The environmental advantages of harvesting hemp annually - leaving the trees in the ground! - for papermaking, and for replacing fossil fuels as an energy source, have become crucial for the source reduction of pollution.
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if we could grow hemp for paper bags, ban plastic bags and make recycling mandatory, we might actually win this fight!!
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- culinarian
- 11 months ago
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