Last week we were honored to be included among the Citizens Campaign for the Environment's priority issues at the 18th annual Environmental Legislative Summit. More than 400 people packed the Miller Senate Building to hear about the key proposals for this year's General Assembly session. Brent Bolin of the Anacostia Watershed Society gave a terrific introduction to the Community Cleanup and Greening Act.
Monday, January 30, 2012
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Plastics industry introduces two weak alternatives
Two industry-written proposals have been introduced in the General Assembly in recent days. Their intent is to make it look like the industry is "doing something." In fact, they will only encourage complacency and confuse people when stronger, more effective proposals are also achievable.
Late last week SB164 was introduced in the General Assembly. The Plastic Bag Recycling Act is a sort of extended producer responsibility (EPR) measure intended to appear as though the plastics industry is taking steps to become more sustainable.
EPR is in theory a good thing--you make something, you should be responsible for dealing with it at the end of its useful life, instead of leaving that to the general public (i.e., taxpayers) or simply abandoning it. European countries have strong EPR laws and their municipal waste volumes are quite low compared to ours in the U.S.
But weak EPR proposals can also hinder the success of real, viable, effective solutions, because it makes people think they are doing something, and resistant to doing more, when in fact nothing of substance changes.
And that is the case here. SB164 requires plastic bag manufacturers to register with the state, print their names on the bags they distribute to retailers in the state, and file reports about how many bags they sell and recycle. They are also required to educate the public about recycling.
How printing the manufacturer's name on a bag reduces litter, I really can't say.
Identical legislation was considered in Illinois last year but it failed to get out of committee.
We expect this to be cross-filed in the House shortly. Meanwhile we already have HB169, which requires stores to maintain recycling bins where customers can bring their bags back. In theory, this is fine--not all jurisdictions offer curbside recycling of plastic bags, and it discourages shoppers from just throwing them away. But retailers are already paying to have their trash taken away; adding recycling pickup adds cost. Small businesses will really feel that extra cost.
And while plastic bags are theoretically recyclable, even if every one of the 3 billion bags Marylanders use each year were turned in for recycling, the infrastructure just isn't there to handle them all. More than 90% of them will be landfilled or incinerated--or lost to the breeze during transportation and become litter anyway. (See the EPA's own data, fourth bullet under Just the Facts. That green box on the right side of the page might interest some of you as well.)
Thus we need to look at proposals that will target that "3 billion bags used" number. Reducing the amount of bags we use is the only way to truly reduce how much trash we produce, and how much litter blights our neighborhoods.
The Community Cleanup and Greening Act will be introduced next week. Stay tuned.
Late last week SB164 was introduced in the General Assembly. The Plastic Bag Recycling Act is a sort of extended producer responsibility (EPR) measure intended to appear as though the plastics industry is taking steps to become more sustainable.
EPR is in theory a good thing--you make something, you should be responsible for dealing with it at the end of its useful life, instead of leaving that to the general public (i.e., taxpayers) or simply abandoning it. European countries have strong EPR laws and their municipal waste volumes are quite low compared to ours in the U.S.
But weak EPR proposals can also hinder the success of real, viable, effective solutions, because it makes people think they are doing something, and resistant to doing more, when in fact nothing of substance changes.
And that is the case here. SB164 requires plastic bag manufacturers to register with the state, print their names on the bags they distribute to retailers in the state, and file reports about how many bags they sell and recycle. They are also required to educate the public about recycling.
How printing the manufacturer's name on a bag reduces litter, I really can't say.
Identical legislation was considered in Illinois last year but it failed to get out of committee.
We expect this to be cross-filed in the House shortly. Meanwhile we already have HB169, which requires stores to maintain recycling bins where customers can bring their bags back. In theory, this is fine--not all jurisdictions offer curbside recycling of plastic bags, and it discourages shoppers from just throwing them away. But retailers are already paying to have their trash taken away; adding recycling pickup adds cost. Small businesses will really feel that extra cost.
And while plastic bags are theoretically recyclable, even if every one of the 3 billion bags Marylanders use each year were turned in for recycling, the infrastructure just isn't there to handle them all. More than 90% of them will be landfilled or incinerated--or lost to the breeze during transportation and become litter anyway. (See the EPA's own data, fourth bullet under Just the Facts. That green box on the right side of the page might interest some of you as well.)
Thus we need to look at proposals that will target that "3 billion bags used" number. Reducing the amount of bags we use is the only way to truly reduce how much trash we produce, and how much litter blights our neighborhoods.
The Community Cleanup and Greening Act will be introduced next week. Stay tuned.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Contact your representatives!
As we wrote in November, Prince George's County is working toward a five-cent fee on plastic and paper bags, to reduce litter and save money for shoppers, businesses, and the county government. In order to bring the matter to the County Council, first the Maryland General Assembly has to give the county authority.
We have a new email action alert system to allow you to easily show your support of this proposal. When you sign, an email is sent to your delegates and senator that represent you in Annapolis. You can also include a note about why you think this legislation is a good idea.
Send an email by clicking here. We also encourage you to call. Your representatives' phone numbers are listed when you enter your zip code at the action alert, or you can search by your address here.
We have a new email action alert system to allow you to easily show your support of this proposal. When you sign, an email is sent to your delegates and senator that represent you in Annapolis. You can also include a note about why you think this legislation is a good idea.
Send an email by clicking here. We also encourage you to call. Your representatives' phone numbers are listed when you enter your zip code at the action alert, or you can search by your address here.
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Bag Fee vs. Tax: More industry rhetoric
Cross-posted on Ban the Bag!
The most common refrain from industry’s echo chamber on a proposed bag fee is: ”it’s a tax,” and taxes, as we all know, is politically a very bad word. Even among fellow advocates, it seems like I am constantly correcting people when they refer to “Washington, DC’s bag tax.” It’s a fee, and I’m not just being a hard-ass worried about appearances when I correct people. They really are two different things.
The five cents charged for single-use plastic and paper bags in DC is a fee because the purpose of the charge isn’t to raise revenue–it’s to encourage people to use reusable bags, and reduce the number of bags entering the waste/recycling/litter stream. Also, the proceeds are tied directly to the consequences of using that bag: litter prevention and river restoration.
As described by the Tax Foundation, and written by now US Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer in 1992, there are three tests to define a charge as a tax:
So when confronted by industry shills that automatically bleats, “It’s a tax!” your simplest reply is: “No, the intent is not to raise revenue, and you don’t have to pay it if you don’t use the bag,” and if they press you, get a little nastier and say, “What’s at issue here is that it’s terrible that we have to impose a fee at all, shouldn’t YOU (industry) be paying to cleanup the mess your product creates in the environment? What we need is a tax on YOU, to shift the burden of cleanup from the taxpayer to the polluting industry that creates the mess in the first place.”
The most common refrain from industry’s echo chamber on a proposed bag fee is: ”it’s a tax,” and taxes, as we all know, is politically a very bad word. Even among fellow advocates, it seems like I am constantly correcting people when they refer to “Washington, DC’s bag tax.” It’s a fee, and I’m not just being a hard-ass worried about appearances when I correct people. They really are two different things.
The five cents charged for single-use plastic and paper bags in DC is a fee because the purpose of the charge isn’t to raise revenue–it’s to encourage people to use reusable bags, and reduce the number of bags entering the waste/recycling/litter stream. Also, the proceeds are tied directly to the consequences of using that bag: litter prevention and river restoration.
As described by the Tax Foundation, and written by now US Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer in 1992, there are three tests to define a charge as a tax:
-
- who imposes the assessment
- who pays the assessment
- what the revenue is spent on
“When the primary purpose of an enactment is to raise revenue, the enactment will be considered a tax, regardless of the name attached to the act….”As the Tax Foundation continues on its blog:
“The converse of that is that when the primary purpose of an enactment is to offset the cost of providing a service, it is a fee.”Another way to look at the bag fee is as a user fee. Unlike a tax, you don’t have to pay it. People who choose single-use bags can pay for the privilege. Shoppers who decline to use a bag, or bring their own, don’t pay it. Now, to complicate matters, Montgomery County, Maryland, does officially call their five-cent bag charge an excise tax, because it is applied to a specific good. They used this definition because of an unusual authority the county has to enact excise taxes without permission from the state’s General Assembly. (Prince George’s County does not have this authority, so they have to request permission just to consider a bag ordinance! However, Montgomery County still expects the revenues to diminish over time, and the proceeds are targeted to stormwater improvements and litter abatement. It still only meets the first of the three criteria for being a tax, as in DC.
So when confronted by industry shills that automatically bleats, “It’s a tax!” your simplest reply is: “No, the intent is not to raise revenue, and you don’t have to pay it if you don’t use the bag,” and if they press you, get a little nastier and say, “What’s at issue here is that it’s terrible that we have to impose a fee at all, shouldn’t YOU (industry) be paying to cleanup the mess your product creates in the environment? What we need is a tax on YOU, to shift the burden of cleanup from the taxpayer to the polluting industry that creates the mess in the first place.”
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Montgomery County's bag fee now in effect!
Shoppers in Montgomery County now have added incentive to skip unneeded disposable bags at checkout in local stores, as the County's five-cent bag fee went into effect on January 1. The County expects the fee to generate $1 million in revenue this year, which will be used to purchase and distribute reusable bags to low-income and elderly residents, and to support storm water improvement and litter abatement programs through the Water Quality Protection Charge fund. Here's another story about it from Fox 5.
As with any change, some shoppers have expressed confusion about when the fee applies. As in 2010 when DC's bag fee took effect, the media is quick to highlight these stories, but, also as in DC, we expect that consumers will learn the ropes and begin to make a habit of reusing bags. The County has already distributed more than 30,000 free reusable bags. It also has a thorough Q&A section on their website and is actively promoting bag giveaways at stores around the county, including Safeway, Walmart, Whole Foods, and Little Bitts Shop. For more updates, be sure to follow @BringYourBagMC on Twitter.
If you still aren't convinced about the problems of plastic bags, Green Wheaton invites you to attend a free screening of the film Bag It! next Monday, January 9, at 7 pm at Brookside Gardens. They will also be distributing free reusable bags from Safeway! Register for your seat here.
As with any change, some shoppers have expressed confusion about when the fee applies. As in 2010 when DC's bag fee took effect, the media is quick to highlight these stories, but, also as in DC, we expect that consumers will learn the ropes and begin to make a habit of reusing bags. The County has already distributed more than 30,000 free reusable bags. It also has a thorough Q&A section on their website and is actively promoting bag giveaways at stores around the county, including Safeway, Walmart, Whole Foods, and Little Bitts Shop. For more updates, be sure to follow @BringYourBagMC on Twitter.
If you still aren't convinced about the problems of plastic bags, Green Wheaton invites you to attend a free screening of the film Bag It! next Monday, January 9, at 7 pm at Brookside Gardens. They will also be distributing free reusable bags from Safeway! Register for your seat here.
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