Seattle green bag program
Jul 5th, 2009 | By Sidhe | Read more in: Progressive LivingFrom AWOP contributor: Sidhe The Wandering Elf
How many times have you been somewhere “nice,” just enjoying the beautiful serenity of nature only to find one of those nasty plastic shopping bags floating by?
If you were lucky it didn’t hold a pile of dog poop or a dirty diaper.
Seattle’s bag fee will be up for vote this August and the people of Seattle are experiencing some outside opposition. Who’s butting their noses into Seattle’s green business?
The American Chemistry Council for one. Those people behind those heart-string pulling commercials extolling the virtues of plastic primarily for the lives it saves when used in medical purposes. I don’t know that a plastic shopping bag has ever saved someone’s life. Though I’m sure a medical professional could MacGyver the crap out of one in a pinch I don’t feel that is a compelling reason to keep the things around. Yet, the American Chemistry Council spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to employ signature gatherers to ensure that the Seattle’s bag fee ordinance (passed last year) is on the 2009 ballot.
The facts:
Seattle’s City Council passed an ordinance in 2008 that placed a 20 cent fee on all disposable shopping bags at grocery, drug and convenience stores.
Funds collected would go to: Seattle Public Utilities for an educational campaign; bag giveaways for people who need assistance (such as low-income families or people who are homeless); and offset the costs of Seattle’s solid waste and recycling programs.
Stores would get to keep 5 cents from each bag to offset administrative costs of the ordinance.
Seattle does not want to ban plastic shopping bags, they want to curb over-consumption of the disposables.
A disposable shopping bag can take up to 1,000 years to degrade.
The annual cost of disposable shopping bags for retailers is estimated at $4 billion.
Petroleum is required to manufacture plastic bags. With skyrocketing fuel prices, who wants to “waste” it on a shopping bag.
The American Chemistry Council is funding the “Coalition to Stop the Bag Tax.” They represent companies like Exxon and Dow. They do not live in Seattle. They need to butt out.
I no longer live in Seattle either but feel that I can lend my support to the people of Seattle as they attempt to govern their own city by getting the word out.
Resources:
Myth Busting: The Truth about 10 Common Bag Fee Myths
Sidhe, The Wandering ElfAWOP Contributor
Author of Musings of a Wandering Elf
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I live on the 11th story in Mumbai – and a plastic bag floating by my window is an almost daily occurrence. So is seeing them all over the city, in the gutters, in the rivers, on the street. I’ve even seen 5-foot high mounds of plastic bags that have turned into a garbage dump of sorts. Plastic is a curse.
In Darjeeling, northeast India, plastic bags are banned. The same chain stores that operate in both Mumbai and Darjeeling manage to find a way to use paper bags (or reusable bags) in Darjeeling – but apparently don’t care enough to start something here in the city. So it’s possible – but only if enough people demand it (Darjeeling’s population is known for being pro-green).
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