While driving home late last night, I heard a commercial (on an L.A. station) urging residents to vote against a bill that is being proposed. If it were to pass, beginning in July of 2011, there would be a 25¢ tax on every bag that you get from a store; paper, plastic, etc. Now there is some fine print, and there are occasions when the tax wouldn't apply, but that's not what I'm getting at.
Here's the question: How many bags per week do you think your family uses?
The commercial said that the passing of this bill would end up costing families an estimated $400 a year in bags. That seemed like a lot to me, so I started doing the math.
$400 divided by 25¢ (per bag) equals 1,600 bags.
1,600 bags (per year) divided by 52 weeks equals approximately 31 bags per week.
I have sons, and we eat a lot, but we don't come anywhere near 31 bags per week. So I'm just curious...do you? Is that an accurate number or is it an exaggeration by people who don't want pay for bags?
Your thoughts? Comments?
6 comments:
What an interesting topic Michelle... Got me thinking too. .25cents a bag is a lot! When I grocery shop I bring home at least 8 bags, a trip to Walmart or Target nets another 8 or so bags, but 31?...
More like 20 on a super busy week. Here is what I am going to do... Next Sunday, I will keep every plastic bag that comes from shopping, kind of like an experiment. Hope others join me and lets see for ourselves.
Troy
Oh. My. Goodness...
Just because of the waste we use, I totally support a tax on bags, but maybe more like 10 cents. I also think they should credit that exact amount when we supply our own bags (rather than the 5 cents now)...
but yeah, that is an excessive amount. Even if I were to grocery shop AND department store shop, EVERY WEEK- I would be 11 times what I do now...
Unless they double bagged everything!
There is no way...however if they were able to calculate that seasonally, I would guess MOST of the bags used per year are around Christmas time. AT that point we aren't JUST using bags we get fromt eh stores but also buying additional bags, paper, ribbons, etc.
Tax on plastic bags sounds fine and all but .25 cents seems a bit much....and 31 bags a week...gosh thats a lot. I go to Vons & Walmart and maybe have 10 bags between the 2...I have been trying to use those reusable grocery bags but between unloading the kids out of the car and not locking my keys and purse inside the car I tend to forget them and only remember them once I am already in the checkout lane.....oops. Great topic to bring up.
The City of Seattle just passed a similar law recently. You will pay 20 cents for every bag you get from any store. People say they will either bring their own bags or shop outside city limits.
So, if you come to Seattle, look out!
Oh... and I never did understand why they didn't encourage people to bring their own bags with a 20 cent discount? I guess they just want to discipline the public?
Scott will be bringing home any purchases stuffed in his shirt! HA!
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