Beginning in the 1970s, disposable plastic bags were seen as more environmentally friendly than paper bags. So stores began the shift to plastic.
Today, shoppers still get asked, "Paper or plastic?" But both choices come with negative effects. The production of all single-use disposable bags, whether paper or plastic, entails lots of energy and resources. And both have dismal recycling rates (10 percent to 15 percent of paper bags and 1 percent to 3 percent of plastic bags, according to the Wall Street Journal).
Now, the most common disposable bags are made of plastic, so it gets the most attention. These bags, made of polyethylene, an oil-based thermoplastic, take about a thousand years to biodegrade. They end up in landfills and, worse, the ocean. But paper bags still take more energy to produce and cost more for stores.
California, with its long coastline littered with white bags, needs a better approach, one that encourages people to make informed choices between disposable and reusable bags. Here are the options:
• A piecemeal, voluntary approach by stores. For example, some stores already have taken it upon themselves to charge for bags, such as Ikea, which charges 5 cents if you forget to bring your own bag to the store. (The proceeds go to American Forests, a citizens group.) Others, such as Whole Foods, take off 5 cents for each bag that you bring for your groceries. Not enough stores are doing this to make a big dent in the problem.
• A hard-line approach, such as a ban. San Francisco has chosen this option – but only for plastic bags. This helps but does nothing about paper bags.
• A simple, market-based solution: a consumption tax. Ireland has taken this route. Since 2002, consumers who forget to bring a bag are charged a 15-cent tax at checkout. Before the tax, Ireland's 3.9 million people used 1.2 billion bags per year. Now it's 230 million. About $9.6 million was raised from the tax in the first year, earmarked for a fund for environmental projects such as recycling refrigerators.
A bill before the California Legislature would adopt Ireland's market-based approach. Beginning in January 2010, Assembly Bill 2769 (by Assemblyman Lloyd Levine, D-Van Nuys) would require California stores to collect a 25-cent tax on all disposable bags, paper or plastic. Stores would get 5 cents for every plastic bag and 10 cents for every paper bag. The balance would go to a Bag Pollution Fund to clean up the litter caused by single-use carryout bags and encourage the reduced use of single-use disposable bags.
The bill has the support of the grocery and retail industries, which currently subsidize the use of disposable bags. Doing away with free bags would save them money. Big supermarket and drugstore chains also would rather have a single statewide standard than a mosaic of local regulations. The bill would grandfather in existing local regulations, such as San Francisco's ban, but the statewide rule would apply going forward.
AB 2769 would provide shoppers with a choice: Bring reusable bags or pay the true cost of a disposable bag. That should shift market behavior – and help the environment, too. The Senate should pass AB 2769, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger should sign it.
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