Seattle Rejects 20-Cent Bag Fee

As proponents of initiatives that will positively impact the environment, we were disappointed citizens of one of the more “green-friendly” cities in North America rejected an ordinance that would have placed a 20-cent fee on plastic bags. That said, we weren’t overly surprised.

The fact the city went the route of “taxing” their citizens in an effort to reduce plastic bag usage, and were projecting revenue of approximately $3 million from the new fee, plus an aggressive lobbying campaign by the plastics industry to vote it down basically spelled doom. At this point in time, with the global recession and unemployment soaring, a tax to try and change behavior was going to be a very difficult sell.

Unfortunately, this flawed approach and the actions of the American Chemistry Council means it will only be more difficult for other cities to atempt reform in this area. The “if Seattle couldn’t pass it, how can we” thought process is bound to be pervasive – but it shouldn’t. Hopefully those other municipalities will learn from Seattle’s mistakes, and also look at how to better combat the plastic industry’s lobbying money.

As sellers of AusPen refillable dry erase markers, EcoSmartworld.com is obviously focused on reducing all waste as much as possible, particularly plastic waste, which causes so much damage to the environment (google “plastic soup”).

Hopefully this doesn’t discourage other jurisdictions, but rather provides them with the blueprint for a better gameplan.

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