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DCist had just been wondering when the city was going to get around to raising awareness about the impending 5 cent disposable bag fee, which goes into effect in January 1, 2010, and lo and behold, the “Skip the Bag, Save the River” Education Campaign press release landed in our inbox today.
You can find the bulk of the campaign literature at http://green.dc.gov/bags, but the here's the highlights: 122,000 reusable bags will be given away for free to low-income residents and seniors, and TV, radio and Metro display advertisements should start running soon.
"Our message is simple: the bag fee is coming," Mayor Fenty said in a statement. "I signed this law in July to cut down on the disposable bags that foul our waterways. But we want everyone to know that you can save the river, and 5 cents, if you bring your own reusable bag to the store instead."
The mayor also announced today that the District Department of the Environment has partnered with CVS/pharmacy and Safeway to help promote public awareness of the coming bag fee. Both chains have agreed to distribute additional free reusable bags, CVS/pharmacy is contributing Green Bag Tag cards, which give CVS ExtraCare members $1 back every four times they reuse a bag.
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great ... now what am I going to pick up my dog's poop with?
What if I bring reusable bags to the grocery store and need additional plastic bags?
I imagine then you have the option of buying plastic bags for 5 cents each and you will bring more reusable bags next time.
You're going to either
a) buy biodegradable bags for a few cents each. (If you cannot afford them, then you should not own a dog)
b) use the bags your bread, fruit, etc. come in
c) go to Virginia for grocery shopping and pay tax on your food
d) use the bags you incidentally buy when you forget your reusable bags
e) give your dog away.
I'm sure you can think of other ways too!
Trade in the dog for a cat!
Then you still need bags to clean out the litter box.
That's what the Post subscription is for. The baggies are perfect for scooping poop.
Kill your dog, eat it, and remember to put the waste in an urban compost heap. If you're not part of the ultimate pet solution, you're part of the problem
Make sure your dog is wearing an officially licensed Molly!® Brand Dog Mask before you have sex with it, kill it, eat it, and put the waste in an urban compost heap.
The website is not very clear. It says that any place that sells food is included, but "prepared food" is excluded?
So if I go to a takeout and order a sandwich, and they put the sandwich in a bag, do I have to pay the 5 cents? I would think not, since this is prepared food, correct?
My understanding is that a plastic bag regardless of who provides it will be taxed 5¢. Many of the lunch places around my office have stopped using plastic and switched to paper which are not taxed under this law.
I can remember the supermarket easily enough. My biggest hurdle will be remembering to bring enough tote bags with me for non-food shopping.
I could be wrong but I believe the tax applies to paper bags as well as plastic. And I, too, am preparing for Bag Day in that I'm already using the recycleable tote bags. So far I've remembered 75% of the time.
So many of those lunch places automatically give you a bag when you're going to walk around the corner and eat it 2 minutes later. Some of the more waste-conscious places ask first if you want a bag. Hopefully this will prompt more of the latter.
Lunch places should give you the option of just pouring your lunch down your pants so you can just waddle around the corner and not poison the environment. This would also make chowder day at the Cockpunchteria much more entertaining.
so, if one "skips the bag," then there is no 5 cent fee going to saving the river. advertisement awareness fail?
What about McDonald's drive-thru? Right now there is no way to give them a reusable bag, or even turn down a bag when you get food from the drive-thru. You get a bag whether you like it or not. Will that cost 5 cents as well?
Or does this (and similar situations like Five Guys, subway, etc) fall under the "prepared food" exclusion?
...to establish a fee on disposable carryout bags provided by grocery stores, drug stores, liquor stores, restaurants, and food
vendors ...
The term “disposable carryout bag” shall not include: (D) Paper carryout bags that restaurants, as defined in D.C. Official Code § 47-2827(e)(2), provide to customers to take food away from the retail establishment;
I hope this isn't the only strategy for saving the river. It seems to me the problem isn't only the number of bags used, but what happens to them after use. It wont matter if the tax reduces bag use by 10%, if the remaining used bags are still being dumped in the river.
I'm pretty sure demand for bags will drop by more than 10%.
And, no, this isn't a one-off strategy for cleaning up the river. It's a start.
Do I have to pay 5 cents for every bag I use to cover your head for asking these 'confusing' questions? It's only 5 cents people!
This has nothing to do with the river, it is a pure money grabbing tax, period.
yep, a money making scheme to attempt to clean up some of the river because, as shawshank stated, bags will still be dumped in the river.
an outright ban would have likely been better
Too bad people in Virginia and Maryland will still be sending plastic bags downstream to us.
If we care so much about trash why don't we pass a goddamn bottle bill?
Because then every hobo in Md and Va will bring their scavenged bottles over to DC to get the refund, well past the number of folks who pay the deposit tax, and it'll cost DC more than the city collects. And while it would give monkey more hobos to try and strangle, not even he has enough arms to handle that kind of horde.
The bottle bill has been DOA since the 1970s. Every time Clean Water Action or the Sierra Club or PIRG tries to push one, the Beverage Manufacturers Association and the Snack Food Association spread a couple mil around and the chocolate eclair backbone crowd in the Wilson Building collapse like failed soufflé made out of platitudes and farts.
And just wait until I get this prehensile penis installed by my most trusted Nigerian business partner. He promises 18 feet of raw, hobo-choking power or DOUBLE my penis back.
The Anacostia is only in DC and Maryland, so Virginians can't pollute it if they tried.
I'll be spending my money in Maryland and Virginia from now on. That 5 cents really adds up over the course of time. DC already has high taxes and I shouldn't have to pay more.
Doesn't VA charge taxes on food? I remember paying 2 cents tax for an apple once... that's considerably more than 5 cents a bag.
Bring a bag and you won't pay the 5 cents, in fact, you'll likely get 5 cents off at many stores!
Or you could be way less dramatic and carry a reusable bag to the grocery store.
No kidding, I mean- hell, no one is ever going to make me conserve anything! Much less carry around a bunch of lightweight, strong, reusable bags to carry around the crap that I buy in! Tea Party!
These bags easily fit into your bag, so you don't have to remember them -- you just always have them.
http://shop.npr.org/products/NPR_ReNEWSable_Nylon_Shopping_Tote_Blue-755-29.html
Yay for empty symbolic gestures! Hemp bags to carry all my plastic wrapped food in... yay... now I'm an environmentalist! God forbid we require food distributors to use biodegradable plastic... or require the grocery stores to replace their plastic with biodegradable... no, no, no... pass laws that burden the customer because it is trendy for bored housewives to look down their noses at people who don't buy the same bags as themselves. Yay, this will reduce the plastic waste in the grocery business by .000000000001%. Horay for bored housewives showing us the way.
Who are all these bored housewives you are talking about? Are there still housewives?
You're right of course there is a large stream of plastic still used in stores, but the post-purchase bags are the most useless and threfore easiest to replace. So why not? It would save hundreds of thousands from getting into trees, our rivers, landfills. Especially (ahem) the gutters and small yards in town, like the one I have to clean them up every morning when I walk out of my house (an avergage of 2-5 target and takeout bags a day).
If you have a dripping faucet in one room, would you go around and leave the other faucets running because you're already wasting water? I mean if you can't fix it all, then to hell with it all right?
If all your faucets are leaking, you call a plumber and fix the problem. You don't just fix the one faucet that's in the room that your guests are most likely to see and then pat yourself on the back because of all that water you're not wasting. You don't exercise peer judgment to try to convince all of your neighbors to fix that one faucet that guests are most likely to see, slap a community fine on that divorcee slut on Elm Street who hasn't gotten around to fixing her one faucet, and then throw an afternoon tea party to congratulate yourselves for your environmental efforts.
Tweed bags are the next big thing, anyway.
Was I the only one who supported this bill thinking it was going to be a daily five cent tax on d-bags? That would have been $18.25 annually from each patron of Rumors, enough to make a real difference in cleaning up the Anacostia.
Right on.
I read this far into the thread before I bothered to laugh out loud.
This law is sexist and classist.
It is sexist because it is very easy for a woman to carry a reusable bag in her purse. For a man without a purse, it is another story.
It is classist because people who do not have cars really do need bags. Those with cars can just pile their stuff in the trunk with no bags.
You're kidding right?
This argument actually makes the most sense to me.
Can't those of us who walk everywhere get a little break? Why do we have to save the environment twice, just to make up for those of you who drive to the grocery store?
This law will also cause a increase in the accidental death rate. People will try to carry too many things in too few bags as they walk. They likely will trip on ice or be hit by a car.
Also, how many of these bags ended up in a river anyway? I always reused or disposed of my bags properly.
hello, plastic industry lobbyist. pleased to have you here with us on dcist. please don't trip over molly, she's trying to sleep...
clearly there's a correlation between carrying items and getting hit by cars.
we should probably just cancel christmas so nobody has to carry all those gifts around with them and worry about getting run over.
What about shopping bag antagonism and one-upmanship?
See:
http://notionscapital.wordpress.com/2009/11/17/shopping-bag-warning/
Seriously. Much like the bag tax itself, this "education" campaign is a joke:
http://www.atr.org/dc-implements-education-campaign-new-bag-a4211
hey look, everyone, it's patrick gleason from americans for tax reform.
note to you, mr. gleason: when you come into our little commentariat community here, advocating for a position as a paid member of some lobbying group, we like it when you have the balls to identify yourself. maybe by signing off on your post.
nice to see you set up an account just for this story. hope you stick around and let us know what you think about everything else.
Wasn't trying to hide anything. Thought by using the name "Patrick" it would be pretty clear who was posting it. To the issue, let me know which of my points you take issue with.
Look forward to being a frequent participant on this site.
Patrick Gleason
Americans for Tax Reform
Soon to be bag tax payer
Washington, D.C.
Thanks for the link Patrick - I appreciate the logical response.
I made a swanky apron out of one of those bags last year. Had a fair amount of extras stemming from my always forgetting my original batch of reusables when I went to Safeway. Eventually, I got tired of throwing them in the river and decided to make a crafts project out of it.