Good news. The D.C. Council has passed unanimously a bill that charges a five-cent fee for grocery-style shopping bads, plastic or paper, for the sake of the trash-filled Anacostia River. (Part of the collected fee will go to fund durable bags for low-income Washingtonians.)
Reportage from DCist and WashingtonPost.com.
Oh dear… five cents will be helpful to fund this program, but it ain’t gonna get anybody to stop using plastic bags, I fear. Ireland’s got the ticket – none of those flimsy plastic bags even available — just a sturdy, very reusable one (I’ve had mine for six years now) that costs one euro. You remember your shopping bag real quick when you gotta pay a dollar for it, believe me.
Witness the success story here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/2205419.stm
Turns out they reduced their bag use by 90% and raised millions of euros.