Seattle officials propose 20-cent grocery-bag fee (Jan 1, if city council approves)

The Seattle Times ^ | April 3, 2008 | Sharon Pian Chan

[Stoat]

(edit)

 

Nickels and City Council President Richard Conlin proposed a 20-cent "green fee" Wednesday on all disposable bags to encourage customers to carry their milk and eggs home in their own bags.

Forget the canvas sacks at home? Shoppers at grocery, convenience and drug stores will pay the price starting Jan. 1, if the City Council approves. A family buying six bags of groceries a week would spend $62.40 a year in bag fees. The city will issue one free reusable shopping bag to each household.

"The answer to the question 'Paper or plastic?' should be 'Neither,' " Nickels said at a news conference. "Both harm the environment. Every piece of plastic ever made is still with us in the environment, and the best way to handle waste is not to create it in the first place."

The proposed fee, the first of its kind in the nation, is the latest green legislation from a mayor intent on making environmental stewardship his legacy.

Nickels and Conlin have been working on a "zero-waste" strategy to reduce trash and encourage recycling. They also announced Wednesday a proposed ban on plastic-foam food containers and cups at food-service businesses, starting Jan. 1. Nonrecyclable plastic containers and utensils would be banned in 2010.

"It's about the use of scarce resources, about pollution of our environment, about litter in our streets and parks and the costs, both economically and environmentally, of throwing away a piece of Earth we have an opportunity to protect and preserve," Conlin said at the news conference, which Councilmembers Tim Burgess and Sally Clark also attended.

(heavily edited to comply with Free Republic posting requirements)

[BunnySlippers]

IIRC, the cost of a paper bag is somewhere around 12 to 15 cents. And I believe that is the double handled one.

I like Trader Joe’s idea:

They make up brightly colored, strong, reusable bags with their logo. They charge .99 cents for each bag. When you come back and use the bag again they give you a ticket to fill out your name and phone. You go into a weekly raffle for $25.00 free groceries.

[Stoat]

Related FR threads that may be of interest

Series of blunders turned the plastic bag into global villain (Enviros misread() report)

Plastic Bags Evil Think Again, Some Scientists Say [bad science leading to bad decisions...]

[bikerman]

I don’t even buy trash bags anymore. I use the paper and plastic bags I get when I shop

I do the same I put the plastic bags into the paper bags with all my burnable trash and I burn it in a burn barrel every day. We don't use the garbage service as we recycle everything else. Even the old burn barrels.

[pnh102]

You’ll make up the cost of the bags in gasoline in short order.

How?

Also, I reuse the bags... for cat poop removal. If they were not included in the price of groceries I would have to buy another set of bags and spend more.

[okie01]

Loook for retailers to support this measure. Those bags are expensive!

The twenty cents will go to the city -- just like a sales tax -- after the store deducts a small commission for cost and handling, probably no more than one or two cents per bag.

It won't be the retailers, it will be the city, who cleans up on yet one more tax.

[okie01]

I agree with the charge for plastic bags. What a waste! I have used those large Sam’s insulated bags for years, and resent the waste that the throw-away bags produce.

1. Good for you. You're saving the store a few pennies of profit everytime you use your own bags.

2. Why do you care what other people do? How does it affect you?

[Stoat]

Those bags are expensive!

Not that we don't pay an arm and a leg for food as it is. If I lived in Seattle I would just do my shopping in the suburbs.

The price of the plastic bags is factored into the price of the groceries, just as is the price of the electricity to run the freezers and the cash registers; the taxes on the land and all other items of operating overhead. 

Re shopping alternatives, many people may indeed do exactly what you suggest.  I've also found that for some food items I can get a MUCH better deal by buying case lots at Amazon, even considering any taxes and shipping charges.

Amazon.com zatarain's

 

"Cooking gumbo at the (Seattle) stoat cave"

Those bags are expensive!

Not that we don't pay an arm and a leg for food as it is. If I lived in Seattle I would just do my shopping in the suburbs.

[Ezekiel]

If this were about reducing bag usage, they wouldn’t be so hot to tax the bags. There’s a bundle to be made. Soon enough, reduced usage *will* lead to a shortfall in whatever do-gooder programs are funded by the green fee. Some other tax will thus be implemented to keep these critical programs alive, of course.

[gitmo]

I agree with the charge for plastic bags. What a waste! I have used those large Sam’s insulated bags for years, and resent the waste that the throw-away bags produce.

We are already paying for the bags. And people use those throw-away bags for other uses as well. Government intervention in Liberty is never the answer.

[gitmo]

I agree with the charge for plastic bags. What a waste! I have used those large Sam’s insulated bags for years, and resent the waste that the throw-away bags produce.

We are already paying for the bags. And people use those throw-away bags for other uses as well. Government intervention in Liberty is never the answer.

[gitmo]

I agree with the charge for plastic bags. What a waste! I have used those large Sam’s insulated bags for years, and resent the waste that the throw-away bags produce.

We are already paying for the bags. And people use those throw-away bags for other uses as well. Government intervention in Liberty is never the answer.

[Just Lori]

Store owners would keep 5 cents of the bag fee to cover costs. Smaller businesses that gross less than $1 million a year would keep the entire 20-cent fee. It would not apply to the smaller plastic bags such as those available in produce sections.

So the other 15 cents goes to the government. After that, who knows where it goes?

I just can't wait till they start taxing us for "sidewalk use". Next we'll have to pay a "birthday tax". One dollar for every year you've been here to plunder mother earth.

This is nuts, folks. Where will it end?

[Just Lori]

Seattle voters deserve it...

I agree with you. The problem is..... Seattle voters are choking off the rest of the state. They've been doing it for years, and I've HAD IT!

[FORTRUTHONLY]

I've been using the reusable bags provided now by most supermarkets for a small fee and I find them to be much better. They are easier to carry from trunk of the car to the house, you can store more items in there and I personally do not mind it. Personally I find the reusable much better than the old "plastic" bags. Don't knock off this idea until you tried it for yourself.

My parents are using them too now, they both have OA and they find them better fit for them than the old style plastic bags.

[FORTRUTHONLY]

Have you tried their green bags? Even Target has them now as well as other supermarkets. Much more convenient than the old plastic bags.

[mathurine]

One of the joys of small town living is that we bitter religion and firearms dependent troglodytes don’t have problems like this with our councils. Wonder what these city slickers would do if I showed up in the parking lot with a bunch of paper bags that I would sell would-be gracery shoppers for fifteen cents a bag, send the SWAT Team?

[Stoat]

Don't knock off this idea until you tried it for yourself

I haven't heard anyone here "knocking off the idea"....it's the matter of Government's involvement in the matter that irks myself and many here.  If the plastic bags are some sort of public health hazard, then they should make the scientific case for that and ban them.  This is merely another tax masquerading as "environmental stewardship" made by people who loathe the free market.

Your voluntary use of whatever bag you want to use is a great example of the free market at work....too bad Socialists don't want to follow your example.

[AGreatPer]

Seattle people are still bitching that the referees were in the bag against the Steelers in the Superbowl.

[jimfree]

Shop in the ‘burbs.

[Just Lori]

Loook for retailers to support this measure. Those bags are expensive!

Retailers aren't getting squat from this idea. Are you aware that many retailers get FREE bags from advertisers who put their message on those bags?

Many of those ads generate sales.

Those sales contribute to the economy.