Plastax

Growing up I never really knew the difference between plastic and paper, it was just what we used to transit the food from here to there. Once I moved to Portland, OR I realized the love people had for reusable bags. The only thing is, I didn't want to buy one. (As weird and dumb as that sounds now). I used plastic bags for years, I never even thought twice when the baggers asked "Paper or plastic?" Mostly because I was uneducated of the situation. I mostly wanted to get to the bottom of WHY I was so opposed to buying a reusable bag. And it really is just a matter of "spending" money on something that I could get an equivalent of for free. I assumed that since I had this outlook on the situation that I most likely wasn't the only one. So I was trying to think of something that could possibly curve peoples views of "buying" and reusable bag. Then I found this article: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/09/0902_030902_plasticbags_2.html

Here they talk about TAXING plastic bags: "Tony Lowes, director of Friends of the Irish Environment in County Cork, said the 15 cent (about 20 cents U.S.) tax on plastic bags introduced there in March 2002 has resulted in a 95 percent reduction in their use." I think this is something that would really bring light the the fact that we just don't want to spend money if we don't have to, and if we have to spend 20 cents on plastic bags every time we go the the grocery store than I think people will start making an investment in spending a couple bucks on reusable bags.  And for those that still don't want to take the plunge in purchasing a reusable bag then there is the fact that they want to use a minimum of bags for their groceries ""Having bags charged has some merits because it gets them used more responsibly," he said. For example, instead of a bagger using six bags to package a person's dinner, the bagger might use just two." What a concept.