More Local Governments in US Taxing Plastic Shopping Bags

Five Virginia jurisdictions have joined a expanding pattern throughout The united states of taxing plastic purchasing luggage in hopes of cutting down and eventually removing their use.

The baggage, built as one-use products, are amid the most typical sorts of litter, polluting land and waterways alike and constituting a substantial part of the nation’s plastic waste.

Gradual to decompose and manufactured from petroleum items, the bags pose myriad hazards even when disposed of thoroughly.

Around time, the plastic may possibly discharge unsafe substances into ingesting drinking water provides or threaten maritime animals and other wildlife that imagine it is food stuff.

The mid-Atlantic condition of Virginia makes it possible for any county or town to force grocery stores, pharmacies and other vendors to accumulate a 5-cent tax on each and every plastic bag supplied to customers. Arlington and Fairfax counties, together with the towns of Alexandria, Fredericksburg and Roanoke, have done just that commencing January 1.

First ban in Bangladesh

Taking a stand in opposition to plastic luggage did not originate in the United States.

In 2002, Bangladesh grew to become the initially nation to ban slim plastic baggage, which ended up blamed for clogging drainage units and contributing to catastrophic flooding.

Other countries followed suit, either banning them outright or taxing them to discourage their use, which ballooned to a million baggage for every moment globally in 2011, in accordance to the United Nations.

According to Earth Atlas, about 60 nations around the world have instituted plastic bag controls, together with China, India and Cambodia. Many African countries have banned them, like Kenya, Cameroon, Rwanda and Tanzania.

In spite of these attempts, plastic bags proceed to litter the world, from oceans to the polar ice caps to even the summit of Mount Everest.

In the United States, California was the initial to pass a statewide ban in 2014. Due to the fact then, various other states, including Hawaii, New York and Oregon, have banned one-use plastic bags.

Assistance is expanding in the U.S. as a lot more area governments be part of the trigger.

But not every person is on board, notably the American Recyclable Plastic Bag Alliance, a lobbying group representing the U.S. plastic bag manufacturing and recycling industry.

“Taxes on plastic baggage will push up charges for buyers now battling with fast expanding grocery expenses owing to popular inflation,” Zachary Taylor, the group’s director, mentioned in a assertion to VOA. When disposed of properly, the plastic grocery bag is the carryout bag with the fewest environmental impacts, he asserted.

Regional problem

On the other hand, Ruthie Cody, who life in Alexandria, Virginia, supports permitting community jurisdictions to implement bag taxes.

“I really don’t consider it need to be mandatory nationwide but anything community governments should really make a decision,” she mentioned, “and the tax is negligible for the every day shopper, but still results adjust.”

By contrast, Linda Joy Wilson, a Fairfax County resident, thinks the tax need to be normal across the place. “I’ve lived in other states with the plastic bag tax and have recognized that it cuts down on plastic baggage utilization and folks convey their own single-use disposable plastic baggage in grocery, drug and usefulness tales,” she reported.

The counties of Arlington and Fairfax and the metropolis of Alexandria system to use the income generated from the bag tax to fund environmental cleanup projects, air pollution and litter mitigation, and training systems.

“We expect there could be some resistance to the tax,” Kate Daley, an environmental analyst for the Fairfax County government, advised VOA. “But we’ve also noticed a large amount of enthusiasm from folks who imagine it will make a massive variance in safeguarding the natural environment and enable suppress air pollution in streams, trees and roadways.”

“I desire it experienced happened faster,” explained Patty Hagan, a Fairfax County resident. “Everyone must use reusable bags.”

Another county resident, David Toms, agreed. “But I imagine they require to ban the plastic baggage completely considering the fact that they harm wildlife. I reside on a lake and it is disgusting how frequently I see them in the h2o.”

But Paul Thurmond in Arlington, Virginia, doesn’t think the tax will make a huge difference. “People who want the baggage will get them in any case and then just toss them out, which looks to defeat the objective,” he stated.

The intention is to “get individuals not to use the plastic bags” or chorus from throwing them on the floor, explained Erik Grabowsky, sound waste bureau chief for Arlington, Virginia. “It’s up to people to do the appropriate issue.”