The New York Times reports on a highly successful Irish initiative to do away with the scourge of plastic bags:
"There is something missing from this otherwise typical bustling cityscape. There are taxis and buses. There are hip bars and pollution. Every other person is talking into a cellphone. But there are no plastic shopping bags, the ubiquitous symbol of urban life.
In 2002, Ireland passed a tax on plastic bags; customers who want them must now pay 33 cents per bag at the register. There was an advertising awareness campaign. And then something happened that was bigger than the sum of these parts.
Within weeks, plastic bag use dropped 94 percent. Within a year, nearly everyone had bought reusable cloth bags, keeping them in offices and in the backs of cars. Plastic bags were not outlawed, but carrying them became socially unacceptable — on a par with wearing a fur coat or not cleaning up after one’s dog."
Now I know this is going to send you libertarian folks out there into cardiac arrest but it shows that, like public smoking bans, we can adapt quite easily and, afterward, wonder what all the fuss was about.
"There is something missing from this otherwise typical bustling cityscape. There are taxis and buses. There are hip bars and pollution. Every other person is talking into a cellphone. But there are no plastic shopping bags, the ubiquitous symbol of urban life.
In 2002, Ireland passed a tax on plastic bags; customers who want them must now pay 33 cents per bag at the register. There was an advertising awareness campaign. And then something happened that was bigger than the sum of these parts.
Within weeks, plastic bag use dropped 94 percent. Within a year, nearly everyone had bought reusable cloth bags, keeping them in offices and in the backs of cars. Plastic bags were not outlawed, but carrying them became socially unacceptable — on a par with wearing a fur coat or not cleaning up after one’s dog."
Now I know this is going to send you libertarian folks out there into cardiac arrest but it shows that, like public smoking bans, we can adapt quite easily and, afterward, wonder what all the fuss was about.
3 comments:
This kind of action happens when there is foresight and a keen sense of what needs to happen. In Canada, if such action were put in place, there might be the chance that somewhere, someone's human rights might be violated regarding choice....tongue in cheek. The fuss happens when people automatically think in the negative. Immediate negative thinking is part of the Canadian psyche
What to do with garbage, what to carry it out in and how to put it into an appartment bin, that is carried away by truck ?
Valid point, anon. One thing we can do is to cut down garbage output. I moved from a major municipality where householders were allowed as many garbage cans as they wanted to a small town where the limit is one a week. At first I thought that restrictive but, with more attention to recycling and purchasing products with minimal packaging, I usually have less than a half can a week to put out to the curb. By the way, I live a comfortable life, not at all spartan. That too is easily achievable with a little bit of planning.
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