Mayor Bloomberg wants to start charging a fee of 6 cents for every plastic bag used in New York City. Similar initiatives are popping up all over the world- Ireland, for example, charges 33 cents per bag! The program is designed to bring environmental efforts as well as revenue back to the city. Officials estimate that as much as $16 MILLION would be generated just by charging for plastic bags! WOW!
I think it’s a GREAT idea! Dan and I went “bagless” over a year ago. We carry our own bags and use re-usable canvas bags for groceries. Plastic bags create litter, use so much oil to produce, and take hundreds of years to decompose.
This NY Times article details more about the plastic bag tax. True, it would be hard to enforce. Some city council members think that it should be 25 cents, so that it really produces consumer change. (Maybe some people won’t care if they’re charged a measly 6 cents for a bag?) Other people disagree with the fee, and they suggest that poor and homeless people would be affected the most, as they wouldn’t be able to absorb the cost like the rest of us.
To that, I just have to comment that I think the HOMELESS people have the least to worry about. They always have what seems like HUNDREDS of bags with them! Hello?! Why do you think the term “bag lady” came from! Maybe it would encourage them to do their part for the environment, and just put their purchases in their rusty shopping carts or abandoned strollers…
No comments:
Post a Comment