apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I went to the opposition site but it says nothing about how this is going to cost the average family $400 a year. I'm guessing that they figure that people will pay the tax every time they shop, instead of wising up and buying some reusable bags, which would cost considerably less than $400. Stuuuupid.

It's not like it's really that tough to find a couple of old gimme totes at a thrift store. But maybe we can solve the problem by holding a bag drive for all the needy families of California.

It's NOT a tax. It's a fee, to be collected by the store providing the bags, to be used to fund community litter abatment programs ... just what, is unspecified, as is to whom the stores would give the collected funds. Going by the actual text of it, it's also not necessarily 25 cents per bag; it appears to be dependent on the efficiency of the providing store's plastic bag recycling program, with a maximum of 25 and a minimum of 15 cents. I'm not sure, since reading legalese is not my strongpoint. And should it pass, it won't go into effect for two years.

I'm sorry, but I have a hard time believing the average family seriously uses 1,600 bags a year, or 133 a month. Yeah, I love math.

I think it's great. Many places in Europe charge for bags, and have for years. I've often thought that if I had to pay for bags I would remember my reusable ones a lot more. As we've seen with the gas crisis, there's nothing better to get this country motivated to save the environment than rising prices.

Agreed SFGail. It seems common that people tend to waste resources if they're not paying for them in a way that impacts their life.

I think it's a fabulous idea. I absolutely HATE seeing plastic bags in the trees and shrubbery lining our streets and highways. It looks awful and it's such a waste!

Lining the highways; I hate that too!