Denver, CO – The Denver City Council is considering a plastic bag tax, rather than the outright ban proposed last year. Councilwoman Kendra Black is proposing the ten cent tax.
Under the proposal, six cents goes to the city, and four cents goes to the retailer. All revenues are required to go towards promoting the tax. Council members are working out details with Mayor Michael Hancock’s administration.
We see plenty of problems with a plastic bag tax, including the reasoning behind it.
Problems
At the base level, this is a “sin” tax that will make the greenies feel good. The additional tax (per bag) drives up costs for people and does little to help the environment. “Food stamp” recipients are exempt from the tax, but other shoppers could pay a couple of dollars each week.
Aside from unnecessary costs, we looked into some common reusable bags.
You see, polypropylene (PP) makes up a lot of reusable bags we found for purchase in a quick search. Like grocery bags, it is a plastic material. PP is also one of the least recycled plastics. Only about one percent of all PP produced is recycled.
Reusable bags carry a much greater environmental impact during production than grocery bags. This means reusable bags must be used dozens of times to make up for the disparity. Plus, all those pretty designs on the reusable bags we found increase the disparity.
Yes, reusable bags eventually help. Unfortunately, if customers forget their reusable bags one day, their net-zero environmental impact worsens. This Clemson study found that 40% of shoppers forget their reusable bags and opt for paper or plastic bags instead. On top of the increased negative environmental impact, the tax on those bags increases the cost for the customer.
We are also concerned the Denver City Council and the Mayor’s Office will attempt to pass this tax as a “fee.” If they are successful, taxpayers will not have the chance to vote the tax down.
Ultimately, plastic bag bans and taxes are more of a feel-good restriction than a quality solution.
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Some years ago I was in European grocery store. I was shocked when I found they don’t provide bags at all. If you don’t bring your bag, you carry your purchases in your arms or run your shopping cart to the car. If the stores stopped providing bags, only sold the re-useable ones, or perhaps gave you some used boxes it wouldn’t take long for people to remember to take their own. Why is everyone so chicken about this?