plastic bag

Regulation of the Day 94: Plastic Shopping Bags

by Ryan Young on January 4, 2010 · 3 comments

in Deregulate to Stimulate, Features, Nanny State, Regulation, Regulation of the Day, Zeitgeist

Retailers have traditionally provided free shopping bags to their customers as a courtesy. Washington, DC’s city government – known for being less than courteous – is now requiring stores to charge customers five cents for each plastic bag they use at checkout.

The tax is environmentally motivated. Since the city is acting so urgently on shopping bags, that implies that they must be the most urgent environmental threat facing DC. If that’s the case, then DC must be a veritable ecological paradise, or else its priorities are misplaced. One or the other must be true.

There were 84 unsolved murders in DC in 2009, by the way.

In lieu of plastic bags, the city is urging people to buy reusable cloth bags. But those have an environmental footprint nearly 100 times larger than a plastic bag, according to Sierra Club data. They have to be used many, many times before they cause any savings. They are also a haven for bacteria if not regularly washed. And washing them adds to their footprint.

Washington, DC has a lot of problems. Expensive but inferior schools, crime, violence, high taxes and spending – the list is long. The epidemic of plastic bags littering the streets is right at the bottom of that list. It should be prioritized accordingly. The regressive plastic bag tax should be repealed.

“No Way” to San Jose

by Angela Logomasini on September 23, 2009 · 3 comments

in Environment

In recent years, the San Jose City Hall has led the way in stupid environmental policies.  Several years ago, they were among one of the first cities  (along with San Francisco and Salt Lake City) to ban bottled water in government agencies based on questionable environmental claims.  Now they are banning stores from giving away shopping bags of any kind.  Plastic bags will be banned altogether and stores providing paper bags must charge a fee only provide bags made with 40 percent recycled material.

As detailed before, banning plastic bags won’t help the environment because they are more energy efficient than paper and do not pose any significant problems when properly disposed.  However, this law also targets paper bags based on the assumption that people either don’t need bags or can bring canvas or other reusable bags.  But there are problems with that approach as well: reusable bags can become riddled with dangerous bacteria.

Surely, every choice in life carries risks and benefits.  The idea that government regulators–starting in crazy places like San Jose–should be granted the right to trump our freedoms and decide what risks are worth taking is frightening, particularly since they so often mess up.  Unfortunately, lawmakers love copying bad ideas.  After San Jose and San Francisco banned plastic bottles, many other places followed suit.  This time, consumers in other cities would be wise to say “no way” to this silly San Jose nanny-state regulation.

Image attribution:  San Jose City Hall taken from ktadeo’s photostream on Flickr.