Nice.
"Seattle’s City Council approved the proposed disposable bag fee
yesterday with a 6-1 vote. Starting in January 2009, shoppers will have
the option of either bringing their own bags to the store, or paying 20
cents per disposable bag to tote their goods. According to an article in the Seattle Times, officials expect that the new fee will cut Seattle’s annual 360-million-bag habit in half." [read more]
I’ve been anticipating this. But I was still a bit surprised that the proposal got an almost unanimous vote. I’ll be needing more reusable bags though. I keep forgetting my reusable bags at home.
Technically I’m not (yet) affected by this since I live outside the city of Seattle. But if and when the "shopping bag fee" prove to be successful (as it was in Ireland), then I expect it to spread like wildfire across different cities here in Washington as well as different states. It’s one of the baby steps toward a more environment-friendly future.
Comments (2)
“officials expect that the new fee will cut Seattle’s annual 360-million-bag habit in half.”
Well,I live in Croatia. Our BDP is considerably lower than US and disposable bag cost about 30 cents. People use disposable bags like there’s no fee. Same in Italy where I do a lot of my shopping. My opinion is that no fee will cut the bag habit significantly but increase awareness about environment and needless waist of energy. How to promote those values is another topic. Introduction of “fee” could reduce a bag habit but only initialy because it is usually accompanied by media coverage. In time those things fade. There should be some sort of constant reminder about bag habit other than 20 cents.
Last time I was in Boulder, I picked up a few of the Chicobags. They were very inexpensive at Vitamin Cottage. I keep forgetting them, too. I’m not sure more of them is the answer. My mom keeps one on her keychain, and she still forgets to use it unless the bagger asks if she brought a bag. Perhaps once there’s a 20ยข charge baggers will ask more often, and we’ll remember more often. It’ll definitely still take some time and effort for us to change our behaviors.