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Legislation would tax plastic bags

by Maria Downey
Wednesday, April 18, 2007

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Plastic bags cause many environmental problems. They wave unsightly in trees and on fences, and create a serious environmental threat blanketing the ocean floor. 

For those reasons among others, legislation has been introduced in Juneau to reduce the use of plastic bags, calling for a 15-cent tax when you say plastic instead of paper.

In this case, it's not the answer that's blowing in the wind, but the problem.  

Windswept plastic bags find their way into every nook and cranny around town and around the state.

That's why the Legislature is now working on legislation to discourage consumers from picking plastic.

"The people, I hope will say, ‘Why are we spending 15 cents on this thing and what is the alternative?'" said Rep. Andrea Doll, D-Juneau. "So it's going to be an educational kind of thing."

Doll's legislation may also educate consumers on what's already occurring in oceans due to plastic.

"What we're finding now is that underneath the plastic, everything is dead," she said. "That plastic is basically suffocating life at the bottom of the ocean."  

Some Alaska communities have already taken it a step further, but with no extra fee. Some towns just don't offer plastic bags at all.

About six villages have already banned plastic bags because there's no way to contain them when there are no fences surrounding landfills.

Mary Fisher, the executive director of Alaskans for Litter Prevention and Recycling (ALPAR), says plastic bags don't make up the largest portion of litter, but that they do pose a problem because of their mobility.

"They do tend to blow around a little bit," she said.

Fisher says ALPAR is waiting to weigh in on the legislation because it's not just about litter, it's about consumers as well.

"Some initial calculations will show that a consumer that uses maybe 10 or 15 bags per week from the store could cost them as much as $100 a year," said Fisher. "For some low income people, that would be quite a hit."

It's also part of the overall debate of "paper verses plastic." 

"Plastic bags have some real efficiency that paper doesn't. In fact, it takes seven van loads of paper for every van load of plastic that's delivered to Alaska," Fisher said. "So the transportation costs and energy that's used to transport that bag is considerably higher for paper."

Experts also say it takes 40 percent more energy to produce the paper bag verses the plastic, which is why litter and recycling advocates want to take a closer look at the new legislation before taking a stand.

While they're not sure that "discouraging" the use of plastic bags is the answer, they all agree they don't belong here, flying in the face of anti-litter and recycling campaigns.

But what else is being done to cut down on the plastic bags that are not being recycled?

ALPAR says local retailers are doing a pretty good job of promoting environmentally-friendly alternatives. For example, the major grocery stores each have on-sight plastic bag recycling, along with cash incentives offering about 3 cents credit for reusing plastic bags and about 5 cents credit for using canvas bags.

By the way, all sides agree that a reusable canvas bag is probably the best solution of all.