Plastic Taxable : Surroundings Livable

Everyone needs clean air and water, and a litter-free place to live.

Scientists say the number of plastic bags strewn on the ocean floor has gone down by 30% since fees were added. It turns out, plastic bag taxes are effective. A new study has found an impressive 30 percent drop in the number of plastic bags found on the sea floor that corresponds to the time period in which several European nations introduced small fees on single-use plastic shopping bags.

“The fewer bags we use, the fewer we can lose, the fewer we can put into the environment. If we all work together towards a better environment, we can make changes. A lot of people live in doom, but… don’t give up yet.”

It is a piece of positive, hopeful news in a subject that’s usually clouded with doom, and goes to show how being proactive in our fight against single-use plastics really does make a difference. It’s never too late to stop trying.

“When it comes to the environment in particular, pricing in external costs is better than heavy-handed regulation.”

Indeed, this is the reasoning behind British MPs’ call for coffee shops to start charging for disposable cups, rather than discounting reusables. Taxes hurt, both in reality and in principle, which is why people respond to them. And if environmentally destructive behaviour is not changing on its own, there’s no reason why such incentives shouldn’t be introduced as encouragement, particularly if the behavior is negatively affecting the state of the earth for other inhabitants, both human and non-human.

Paper or plastic? You’ve probably heard the question approximately 2.589 billion times. But depending on where you live, that question might have changed in recent years to something like, “Do you want to buy a bag, or did you bring your own?” Now, it doesn’t really seem like asking for a measly 5-to-7 cents for a bag could make too big of an impact on the planet — but as it turns out, it does.

Bangladesh became the first country to regulate disposable bag use when the government banned single-use plastic bags in 2002. Shortly after, Ireland implemented an alternative regulation, a €0.17 tax per plastic bag (later raised to €0.33) called the “Plastax.” The varying approaches don’t end there. Like England, China and South Africa do not levy a tax on disposable bags, but require that store owners charge a fee for bag use. Rwanda banned plastic bags in 2008, and agents at the airport not only confiscate any they find but also cut the plastic wrapping off of suitcases. Similar variation exists across the US. In 2010, Washington, DC became the first American city to charge customers for the use of disposable bags when the City Council passed a five-cent tax on both paper and plastic bags. And last year, California became the first state to pass such legislation, which coupled a tax on paper bag with a ban on plastic.

Government regulations are not the only policies aimed at curbing disposable bag use. Several grocery store chains offer their own incentives to curb disposable bag use, such as financial rewards for customers who bring their own bags.

But in spite of environmental concerns, it is not obvious that the optimal policy is to reduce disposable bag consumption to zero, through a ban. The environmental costs may not always outweigh the benefits some shoppers receive from the convenience of getting a disposable bag at the store. If they are willing to pay a higher tax or fee in exchange for that convenience, it could offset the costs to the environment.

So while a ban or a larger tax may be successful at reducing disposable bag use even further, policymakers should carefully weigh the benefits of that reduction against the burden shoppers would face from the inconvenience or financial costs of the policy. In contrast, less restrictive policies, such as nominal fees for bag use, change the behavior of only those customers who are almost indifferent between using a disposable bag or not.

A tiny tax had an impressive impact on behavior, suggesting that a policy that focuses on consumers on the margin could still have a lot of bite. And maybe that is a good place for policymakers to start.

References:

1. http://theconversation.com/paper-or-plastic-how-disposable-bag-bans-fees-and-taxes-affect-consumer-behavior-48858

2. https://www.treehugger.com/plastic/plastic-bag-taxes-really-work.html

3. https://curiosity.com/topics/plastic-bag-taxes-and-bans-are-working-curiosity/