Tuesday, February 09, 2010
Editorial: An incentive to go green
Virginia should tax wasteful grocery bags.
From the RoundTable blog
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As early as today, Virginia lawmakers will consider a bill (H.B. 1115) to require a 5-cent fee for grocery store bags. They should pass it.
For every grocery bag a Virginian hoards to hold used cat litter or bathroom trash, for every bag someone reuses to carry lunch or returns to be recycled, far more wind up in landfills or, worse, as litter along the commonwealth's byways.
Next time you stroll along the banks of the Roanoke or New rivers, keep an eye on the shores and trees. It will not take long to spot white and tan bags clinging wetly to rocks and branches.
Each one contains lost resources -- oil for plastic and trees for paper. They are consumption for convenience's sake.
And what small convenience it really is. It is but to avoid having to remember to keep reusable bags in one's car and to bring them into the store. If only all other environmentally sound decisions were so easy.
Yet too many people forget or refuse. The proposed fee would be a reminder and an incentive for them. Bring your own bag or pay a nickel for one at the store. The charge would be entirely optional.
Stores would keep part of the money to cover the cost of collecting the fee. The remainder would go to a program to clean Virginia's waterways.
The District of Columbia recently adopted a similar fee and quickly saw plastic bag consumption cut in half at stores. Maryland, meanwhile, is considering its own version of the bill.
Sometimes widespread adoption of sound environmental practices requires a nudge.
