Bag tax is the least we can do
As of New Year's Day, when you buy items at stores in the District that sell food and/or alchohol, you'll pay 5 cents per shopping bag the store provides to carry your goods home.
The bag fees will fund the clean up of the Anacostia River. A Washington Post article about the new fee quotes some DC shoppers complaining about the cost -- but the cost is truly minimal. At 5 cents per bag, if you required five bags per week, that would be a mere $13 per year. Ten bags a week, $26 per year -- truly a pittance to pay to clean up the river.
Of course, you can avoid the fee by bringing your own reusable bag, which is the whole point. Fewer bags in the community mean fewer end up in the river.
DC lawmakers estimate the fee will generate $3.6 million for the river in its first year. How about Montgomery and P.G. Counties pass a similar fee to generate funds to chip in for the clean up? After all, the river's tributaries begin in those locations.
Do you agree? Post your comment here!
The bag fees will fund the clean up of the Anacostia River. A Washington Post article about the new fee quotes some DC shoppers complaining about the cost -- but the cost is truly minimal. At 5 cents per bag, if you required five bags per week, that would be a mere $13 per year. Ten bags a week, $26 per year -- truly a pittance to pay to clean up the river.
Of course, you can avoid the fee by bringing your own reusable bag, which is the whole point. Fewer bags in the community mean fewer end up in the river.
DC lawmakers estimate the fee will generate $3.6 million for the river in its first year. How about Montgomery and P.G. Counties pass a similar fee to generate funds to chip in for the clean up? After all, the river's tributaries begin in those locations.
Do you agree? Post your comment here!
Labels: anacostia river, dc, paper bag, plastic bag, reuse, sustainability
posted by Dan Kulpinski at
9:42 PM
1 Comments:
I had my first experience with the bag fee in DC recently when purchasing carryout chicken dinner. I think the fee helps build awareness, the first step to changing habits -- in this case, taking a reusable bag for shopping.
BTW, an article in yesterday's Gazette reports that the Maryland legislature will consider a similar measure. See http://www.gazette.net/stories/01132010/nortnew201042_32549.php.
By
Dave H., At
January 14, 2010 at 8:24 AM
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