The Shadow
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) – Virginia legislators have defeated a proposal aimed at curbing pollution and waste by imposing fees on the use of plastic bags, but bill sponsors are vowing to bring the issue up again next year.
A measure that would have required stores to charge customers a 5-cent tax on paper bags and disposable plastic bags died last week in a House of Delegates subcommittee after strong opposition from the retail and chemical manufacturers’ lobbies.
“It might be dead this year, but I’ll be back like a virus,” said Del. Joe Morrissey, D-Highland Springs and a sponsor of one of the bills, which was combined with another measure. “I think it’s something that really couldn’t be more nonpartisan.”
Del. Adam Ebbin, D-Arlington, said his legislation was an effort to encourage people to change their behavior to cut down on waste and benefit the environment. Shoppers who preferred disposable plastic bags could have opted to pay a nickel per bag.
“The consumers would have a choice and if they chose to use the throwaway bags, they’d pay a very small fee. So this is certainly a choice,” Ebbin said.
Retailers would have retained a penny of each bag fee, or two cents if the stores offer customer bag-credit programs. The revenues raised by the fee would have gone to the Virginia Water Quality Improvement Fund.
Morrissey said people of all political persuasions are becoming increasingly concerned about plastic-bag litter.
“People are going to get behind this,” he said. “It’s sad we’re not a leader in this.”
Made of petrochemical derivatives, plastic bags take decades to decompose. Many end up outside landfills, carried into the air and littering roads and waterways, getting stuck in trees and choking or strangling animals that swallow or get tangled up in the bags.
Plastic-bag manufacturers represented by the American Chemistry Council strongly oppose bag taxes and bans, saying they’re unworkable and kill jobs, and actively lobby against such measures nationwide. They say they favor voluntary recycling – but Morrissey and others note that there aren’t many facilities that are able to recycle most types of plastic bags.
South Africa, Ireland, Denmark and other nations and several U.S. cities have adopted plastic-bag taxes or other restrictions. Several California communities are among those currently considering whether to adopt similar measures. U.S. retailers have also voluntarily encouraged shoppers to use their own bags by offering a small credit per bag, typically a nickel.
Washington, D.C., enacted its 5-cent disposable-bag tax in January 2010. City officials estimate that before the fee, residents used about 270 million bags a year at grocery and convenience stores. The most recent figures showed that residents were on track to reduce usage to about 55 million bags, or about 80 percent fewer bags. Retailers, meanwhile, have told city officials they’ve cut down drastically on the number of bags they were buying.
The tax brought in a total of $1.9 million for cleanup of the Anacostia River in the first 10 months of 2010.
Erik Assadourian, a senior fellow at sustainability think tank Worldwatch, said that governments and businesses have the opportunity to shape consumer behavior to benefit the environment and citizens’ health. Addressing consumption issues comes down to readjusting cultural norms, including the industry-driven idea that disposable bags represent a consumer choice that shouldn’t be taken away.
“There’s a belief that can be tapped – that we shouldn’t have to pay for a bag. It’s our entitlement,” Assadourian said. “The lobbying combined with small grass-roots groups to push for the industry’s agenda has been effective in working to stop the movement of these bans.”
If it’s more difficult for shoppers to get plastic bags, they start rationalizing they don’t need them anymore, Assadourian said. What begins as trying to save a nickel, over time, turns into doing something because they care for the environment, he said.
