Turning The Tides Is Gathering Signatures for Initiative Petition to Add $0.15 Charge on Plastic (single use) Shopping Bags Provided by Certian Retailers

Turning The Tides members are circulating:

An Initiative Petition to amend the Code of the City and Borough of Juneau by adding a tax of $0.15 per bag on all plastic shopping bags provided by retailers at the point of sale.

Impartial Summary of the Initiative being sponsored:

If approved by the voters, this ordinance would amend the code to impose a tax of $.15 per bag, collected from the retailer, for each plastic bag provided to a shopper. The ordinance defines a plastic shopping bag as those bags made of lightweight synthetic material commonly provided free of charge to shoppers by retailers. The ordinance defines a retailer as a business offering to the general public groceries, hardware, liquor or sundry items with annual average gross sales over the last five years of $15,000,000 or more.

Plastic Bag Background Summary & Top Facts

This article is taken from REUSIT.COM a source for reusable products to replace single use plastics and information on plastics and more.

A topline summary

2002 marked the 25th anniversary of the plastic shopping bag. In this short period of time worldwide consumption has reached an estimated 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags per year. This enormous consumption has created several problems including: large volumes of pollution and wind-blown litter, significant resource consumption (primarily oil), high cost to retail industry (estimated at $30 billion annually) passed along to consumer in the form of higher prices. Ultimately, all these "free" bags cost both consumers and the environment plenty.

Around the world governments and consumers are uniting in a growing backlash aimed at substantially reducing the use of plastic bags. From restricting their use through intelligent taxes where consumers are charged at the checkout counter for each bag consumed (Ireland, South Africa, Denmark, Germany, parts of Japan) to banning outright (Bangladesh, Taiwan) - the movements are snowballing.

Introduced in 2002, Ireland's PlasTax was extremely successful and has reduced Ireland's plastic bag consumption by 90+%. It has been widely accepted by both consumers and retailers as a smart way to address problems surrounding plastic bags. As a result, several other regions, including Great Britain, Australia and San Francisco, are looking into implementing similar programs.

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