Opinion: Paper, Plastic, or Neither?

(Feb. 15) -- This year, grocery shoppers in the District of Columbia -- which has a poverty rate that surpasses 19 percent and an unemployment rate that approaches 12 percent -- found themselves faced with a new tax: 5 cents on every plastic or paper bag they carry out of the store.

The District Department of the Environment says plastic bags, in particular, pollute the local Anacostia River, destroy cooling intakes on motor boats and even "trap fish, birds and other wildlife, or become lodged in their stomachs." So 4 of the 5 cents are directed to an Anacostia cleanup project.

The District isn't alone. In fact, its new tax is part of a larger -- and ultimately fruitless -- battle being waged across the country on retail bags.

San Francisco banned plastic bag use in March 2007, for various environmental reasons, such as controlling litter and reducing the city's carbon footprint. In January 2011, two counties in Hawaii -- Kauai and Maui -- will start enforcing plastic bag bans based on concerns about plastic in the ocean.

Dozens of other communities around the nation have looked at or expressed interest in similar laws, and even the United Nations has expressed a view. U.N. Environment Program Executive Director Achim Steiner said in a 2008 statement that "single-use plastic bags which choke marine life should be banned or phased out rapidly everywhere."

In July, the city council in Seattle imposed a 20-cent tax on paper and plastic bags disbursed at retailers, aimed at controlling litter and protecting the ocean. But voters there said "no, thanks"; a few weeks later, they overturned the ordinance via a referendum.

Lisa Mastny with the environmental group Worldwatch Institute says most shoppers usually toss their bags rather than reuse them -- a wasteful practice made worse by those who discard them improperly and allow them to blow down the roadside, into the waterways.

Moreover, Mastny said, "most plastic bags are made of petroleum products, and on the production side, there are issues with fossil fuels and greenhouse gases." Bag taxes, she said, are generally good in that they help educate consumers about the environmental hazards of plastic, which then opens the doors to outright bans -- something her group advocates.

But there are problems with this line of reasoning.

Claims of marine animal deaths, for example, have been exaggerated. Brandon Housekeeper, an environmental analyst for the Washington Policy Center who has tracked the bag ban and tax issue, finds that while some bag ban advocates claim 100,000 marine deaths due to plastic bag ingestion, that number is drawn from a flawed Canadian report and the true death toll is significantly lower.

Also, the connection between plastic bags and greenhouse gas is a bit stretched. James Taylor, a senior fellow for environment policy with The Heartland Institute, notes that "There is no correlation between plastic shopping bags and global warming. Although plastic bags are made with petroleum, the petroleum is locked in the bag rather than burned to release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere."

And if bag production can be faulted as a contributor to global warming, couldn't any materials' production -- including paper or reusable cloth bags -- be accused of the same?

Also, let's not forget these plastic bags are actually recyclable, as the American Chemistry Council notes. Two years ago, New York City passed a Plastic Carryout Bag Recycling Law that requires stores with 5,000 square feet or more to provide recycling receptacles for the bags. In 2006, California passed legislation pushing stores to comply with the same. Other states could certainly follow suit.

Given the financial stress families are under right now, it hardly makes sense to impose feel-good policies that make buying basic necessities more expensive.

Cheryl K. Chumley is a writer and reporter who lives in Northern Virginia.