Seattle’s Plastic Bag Fee

The petrochemical companies have opened up their wallets and dumped over $1.5 million into lobbying against the referendum in Seattle that would place a 20 cent fee on plastic bags. By all accounts it looks like this is going to be a very close vote, despite the chemical companies (via The American Chemistry Council, the lobbying arm of the plastic industry) outspending the environmental interests side by approximately 15-to-1.

However, I wouldn’t be surprised to see it defeated. While other municipalities have instituted an outright ban, Seattle’s City Council took a different approach, one that would see shoppers paying to use bags. The expected revenue generated for the city is pegged at about $3 million per year. While I see the good they were attempting to produce, the fact they tunred it into a revenue-generating opportunity for the city could be ultimately what brings the project down. Many people these days don’t want to spend two or three extra dollars (which is what the city estimates will be the cost) per week on grocery bags – and The American Chemistry Council has had an impact with their lobbying efforts.

If it does go down the drain, hopefully this won’t have any ripple effect on the momentum around the world with cities banning outright, or putting programs in place to curtail the use of plastic.

We’ll be watching the results from Seattle on Tuesday evening.