Plastic or paper?

[Glen Miyashiro]

With all the attention on the impending debut of the Hawai'i beverage container deposit fee program (a.k.a. the bottle bill), I was interested to see this BBC article about a retailer in Scotland who's charging an extra five pence to customers who want their merchandise in plastic bags, the proceeds to be donated to an anti-littering group. Also, the Scottish parliament is considering a national tax on plastic bags, modeled after the Irish Republic's 15 cent per bag tax.

[pzarquon]

Re: Plastic or paper?

The independent effort by a private retailer to do its part for a public problem is interesting. I wonder if a WalMart or Safeway could get away with it in the U.S., though? Everyone loves to hear about people and companies doing the right thing, but especially when it's someone else doing the doing.

I've read about stores on the Mainland allowing customers to easily pass up their change (which is already dispensed independent of the cashier) and designate it to go a charitable cause. Your hands stay free and clean, your pockets stay lighter, and a good cause gets a boost. I wish they had those setups here.

Just something like that on a larger scale, with an environmental group or local anti-litter effort among the possible beneficiaries, would probably work just as well as a "charge" or "tax."

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Plastic or paper?

Safeway gives you a discount on your groceries when you use your cloth bag instead of their plastic bags. Sounds like a good idea. Costco as we all know doesn't even give you anything but their cardboard boxes so maybe that should be the way to go.

[Miulang]

Re: Plastic or paper?

Here's an interesting idea for an entrepreneur: take all those unused plastic grocery bags and ship them to Cuba! Those people treasure their plastic bags (because they can't get them) so they recycle them constantly and my guess is that they currently don't have a landfill problem with these suckers blowing all over the place, either.

Miulang

[Glen Miyashiro]

Re: Plastic or paper?

Bumping this old thread due to this new article reporting that the city of San Francisco is considering a charge of 17 cents on each grocery bag, plastic or paper, used in the city. Now, 17 cents seems a bit much considering that the city estimates that their recycling and litter cleanup costs are less than 7 cents per bag...

[Miulang]

Re: Plastic or paper?

I don't think this proposal is going to fly. Not at 17 cents a bag, anyway. I think even the citizens of California would think that was a bit pricey.

I recycle most of the ones I use (they make great disposal bags for kitty poop) and what I don't reuse, I just put into one bag and toss into our recycle bins either at home or in the supermarkets. Most of the ones I don't reuse are ones that have holes or tears in them.

Miulang