A recent trip to Washington, DC to visit my family also held a pleasant surprise for me, a person who is scornful of and infuriated by needless packaging. About 9 months ago, DC passed a bag tax that assessed a five-cent tax on both paper and plastic bags given out at retail establishments, the proceeds of which go towards cleaning up the heavily polluted Anacostia River. The bag tax gained momentum when a close study of the river showed that nearly all of the floatables in the river were discarded plastic bags. After much handwringing and finger-pointing at the time the legislation was passed, it seems that the city has settled into its new ways very nicely. Most importantly, in my opinion, is the fact that this tax breaks the instinct of shopkeepers and clerks to stick even the smallest of items in one, two or sometimes three bags. This is what I refer to as the “bag reflex”, where clerks and customers are so accustomed to having every item in a bag, that they think nothing of it. All of a sudden, though, it has moved to the front of our lobe as a decision to be made: pay the five cents, or attempt to carry out groceries in our arms, as many customers seem to forget reusable bags. The victory for me while in DC was when I didn’t to struggle or argue with a cashier about how I didn’t want a bag, because they were right there with me.
The results are staggering: plastic bag usage in the District has dropped by nearly 85%. We often forget that plastic bags aren’t really free, we just don’t pay for them by the unit. Plastic bags on average cost retailers about three cents apiece, and paper bags about five cents each. These costs are rolled into retailer’s overhead, along with the air conditioning, lights, labor, etc. If we collectively stop using bags altogether retailers will see a windfall, which by the laws of free market economy will trickle down to the consumer. So this tax can actually encourage us to save money by chastising our bad habits and reinforcing the behavior we hope to encourage.
The prevailing sentiment in advance of such watershed moments is that “the people” can’t afford this type of change, and that the legislated changes would cause strife and economic hardship, or that it is un-American or draconian to coerce any specific type of behavior. The lesson here is that we as grown humans in a civil society can change our ways, too; we just need the right incentive. Citizens might be furious the first couple of times the forget their own bags and have to pony up, but you can bet that they will be more likely to remember the next time. And once we start, it’s very easy to continue and extend the idea of non-consumption to other areas.
Back here in Pennsylvania where bags are still “free” (nothing’s really ever free), I’m both amused and bemused about the bag reflex of the enlightened. I often see individuals in Trader Joe’s or Giant Eagle who bring their reusable bags, but continue to use individual bags for each type of produce they buy: limes, oranges, carrots, onions, and my favorite, bananas. I have to restrain myself from offering to them that whatever they think they are protecting their produce (that already has a skin on it!) is probably no worse than the pesticides that are on the produce already. Especially bananas!
No comments:
Post a Comment