peel.

C'mon Seattle, say 'No' to the bag tax on August 18th.

This bag tax business is bad public policy.

In Seattle, the bag tax only applies to grocery, drug, and convenience stores— boutique stores such as Nordstrom or Macy’s are exempt. If revenues are over $1M, the store keeps 5 cents of the 20 cent fee. If revenues are under $1M, the retailer keeps the entire 20 cents. The problem with this model is that there is absolutely no evidence of how much the government will make from this policy (it only applies to 70% of businesses in Seattle), nor is there any indication of recooperating costs of administering the program (the ordinance outlines that the city will hire 2 full-time employees with salaries of $40k+ as well as enforcement personnel.)

The plastic bag is not the biggest environmental challenge that we have (The city reports that plastic bags account for a mere 0.4% of landfill space). The total resources spent on the issue could be channeled elsewhere in more productive uses. Some ideas for better use of plastics include Extended Producer Responsibility (governs that companies pick up and recycle any product it sells), source reduction, or education programs.

For more bag tax information, check out: http://seattlebagtax.org/