There is a bill in Philadelphia City Council that was struck down last year but has reared it's ugly head once more: A bill banning plastic bags and another that would institute a tax of 25 cents per plastic bag you get from a store.Environmentalists are praising this bill; I am not.
Who, exactly, does this bill help? Many site the best reason to institute this ban is because they cause waste and aren't disposed of properly. Really... that's about it. These people see a city where everyone carries tote bags all the time, and buy small things like books and bottles of water.
Sadly, their view of reality seems incredibly limited.
Think about your average day at work. During your day, you most likely go out and get lunch from a corner deli or a fast food restaurant. Most of these places use plastic bags. So your kick run to Taco Bell for a taco and some nachos jumps from a mere $2 to $2.25. Multiply that by 5, and you've just paid $1.25 more for what should be free. Or maybe you go to the store and buy a few things, maybe some soap, a soda, and magazine. You don't have a tote bag, so your stuck paying 25 cents for a bag. Or what about a simple run to the corner store for something for dinner? Again, another fee! How about this simple fact: What if you make a fairly large purchase from a store, say for a poster frame that wouldn't fit in a tote bag? Again, a fee for something that should be free!
Really, this is just silly. Why do we need another law banning something? Why are we having government take the roll of babysitter to force us to do something we should be doing ourselves?
What makes more sense is for letting the owners of stores make their own rules about plastic bags. IKEA and Aldi have already made rules at their stores about charging people for plastic bags, with fees normally only 10 cents. I once went to the store with my own tote bag, my own ugly, unattractive, 100% recycle from plastic tote bag, to get groceries from the corner store. Because I did, the man who ran the store gave me $1.00 off my $30 purchase. If more stores did this and promoted it, we wouldn't have this problem!
This move is nothing more than a smack in the face of Philadelphians everywhere! Instead of cutting government waste and making the local city government work more efficiently, instead of eliminating programs that need to be cut, instead of making legislation that would save Philadelphia money, our City Council foolishly thinks that instituting a fee in the name of "being green" is the right thing to do! They hide behind a shield of false environmentalism in order to fill city coffers, and I say enough!
Instead of having government as out babysitter and nickle and dimming us for everything, why don't we instead convince businesses to switch? Wouldn't the time and effort to persuade, push, and enforce this idiotic legislation be better used to convince local businesses and large chains to do it instead? If we're already seeing a move in the private sector to make things better, why not let them do what they need instead of imposing the will of a select few?
Feel free to look at the legislation yourself:
Mandatory Use of Recycled and Compostable Checkout Bags
http://webapps.phila.gov/council/detailreport/?key=9141
Advanced Recovery Fee (Green Fee) for Disposable Shopping Bags
http://webapps.phila.gov/council/detailreport/?key=9142
(Photo thanks to "The Kids Got Moxie")
