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Fees On Plastic Bags: Altering Consumer Behavior By Taxing Environmentally Damaging Choices, Alice R. Baker

Alice R Baker

Reduce, reuse, recycle, the environmental adage of the 1980s has proved unsuccessful in solving many of our solid waste problems. Far too often emphasis was placed only on recycling as the solution to our troubles, while the concepts of reducing our consumption or reusing products fell by the wayside. Thirty years later, it is clear that simply recycling is not enough.

Plastic bags have emerged as an icon of society’s eagerness to acquire goods and its single-use consumerism. Every year approximately 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide. Our uncontrolled consumption and quick disposal of plastic bags …