The Price of Plastic
Friday, January 11th, 2008
This is the nicest sign we’ve seen in a long time. Our reporter snapped this pic a few days ago in Burbank, CA. Ikea started charging money for their plastic bags in the US in March 2007. In the UK, the company managed to reduce plastic bag consumption at their check-outs by 95 percent.
Today, the L.A. Times printed an editorial that is in favor of governments putting a fee on plastic sacs – which is currently illegal in California, due to an idiotic bill passed in 2006 (AB 2449) that was meant to promote in-store recycling. As long as that weird provision is not repealed, discouraging customers from using disposable bags is up to the stores. Go, Ikea!
Read why plastic bags are worse than you ever thought here and here (PDF from Healthebay.org). And here:
A recent staff report for the L.A. County Board of Supervisors (PDF) about carryout bags in L.A. County mentions the hidden costs of plastic bags for consumers. The average shopper makes the store spend $18 per year to provide him with free plastic bags. And the store will make sure to get those $18 back via increased product prices. In other words, we all pay 18 bucks per year for this nation’s bad bagging habit. What a mess.
(photo: Backhouse Images)