The Seattle City Council last month imposed a 20 cent fee on all plastic and paper bags at grocery, drug and convenience stores. This fee, as well as a ban on all plastic foam drinking cups and food containers, will go into effect within Seattle city limits at the beginning of next year. We wholeheartedly support any effort to improve the environment, and while we applaud the city of Seattle for its environmentally conscious position, we feel that the tax was unnecessary and heavy-handed — at least at this point.
As residents of the state’s largest city, Seattleites collectively make the greatest impact on our environment. Seattle uses 360 million disposable bags every year (most made of plastic). Seventy-five percent of those bags come from the city’s 575 grocery, drug and convenience stores (out of a total 3,600 retail and restaurant businesses). City officials estimate that the bag fee will reduce the number of bags used by 50 percent. If that indeed happens, 180 million bags, at 20 cents per bag will bring in roughly $36 million. That is some chunk of change!
The bag fee doesn’t directly impact Sammamish or Issaquah residents, at least not yet, but with Seattle taking the lead, can the rest of the state be far behind? Especially with officials in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Portland either already imposing or considering bag fees of their own.
So, we wish that Seattle had started first with an educational campaign, and asked for voluntary cooperation and/or offered incentives for compliance, rather than jumping first to punitive tactics. After all, many of us have already begun bringing our own re-usable bags to the store, even without being asked. If more people were aware of the damage, waste and costs associated with disposable bags, we feel certain that more people would begin to change their behavior. If education and incentives had failed, the city might have then turned to a tax to change behavior. But only after other voluntary measures had failed to produce the desired results.
We in the Northwest have a special affinity for the environment and have always been at the forefront of environmentally responsible behavior. We’ve never needed to be told what to do. Why are our civic leaders now demanding compliance with such behavior? Is it really because they want to protect our environment, or is it because they all want to be seen as doing something for the environment? How else can politicians take credit for change that citizens are making on their own?
In addition to being “green” there’s another Northwest tradition, and that is in being fiercely independent. Citizens in other parts of the country may like to be told by their elected officials how to behave, but we Northwesterners simply don’t like being told what to do.
Bag fees, mandatory recycling, low flow toilets — we can’t help but ask ourselves “where will it end?” Look out, because before you know it, you may be fined for not eating your (organic) veggies.
