Another nation takes action where the US thumbs it's nose. I posted recently about China outlawing plastic bags.
Motivated by a Tax, Irish Spurn Plastic Bags
Derek Speirs for The International Herald TribuneReusable cloth shopping bags, like this one at a Superquinn grocery checkout in Dublin, have replaced those stretchy, crinkly plastic shopping bags, which are subject to a 33-cent tax per bag.
DUBLIN — There is something missing from this otherwise typical bustling cityscape. There are taxis and buses. There are hip bars and pollution. Every other person is talking into a cellphone. But there are no plastic shopping bags, the ubiquitous symbol of urban life.
In 2002, Ireland passed a tax on plastic bags; customers who want them must now pay 33 cents per bag at the register. There was an advertising awareness campaign. And then something happened that was bigger than the sum of these parts.
Within weeks, plastic bag use dropped 94 percent. Within a year, nearly everyone had bought reusable cloth bags, keeping them in offices and in the backs of cars. Plastic bags were not outlawed, but carrying them became socially unacceptable — on a par with wearing a fur coat or not cleaning up after one’s dog....(link New York Times)
A BBC link for when the Times put's their news behind their firewall.
Tuesday, 20 August, 2002, 14:36 GMT 15:36 UK
Irish bag tax hailed success
Stores including Tesco have welcomed the taxA tax on plastic shopping bags in the Republic of Ireland has cut their use by more than 90% and raised millions of euros in revenue, the government says. ...(link BBC News)
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