Seattle Bag Tax

and Styrofoam Ban

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References

“Alternatives to Disposable Shopping Bags and Food Service Items,” Herrera Study, Volume I, P. 3-3.
The Herrera Study “provides the City of Seattle with relevant information to inform policies being developed for disposable shopping bags, and expanded polystyrene foam (EPS) and other plastic disposable “to-go” food service items. The report concludes that actions taken within the spectrum of strategies presented will likely reduce environmentally adverse and socially undesirable implications of disposable plastics. (Herrera Study, Executive Summary P.ES-1).”

“Alternatives to Disposable Shopping Bags and Food Service Items,” Herrera Study, Volume II, Table ES-1, Appendix A, Appendix B, Appendix N, Table 8C: P. N-6.
The Herrera Study “provides the City of Seattle with relevant information to inform policies being developed for disposable shopping bags, and expanded polystyrene foam (EPS) and other plastic disposable “to-go” food service items. The report concludes that actions taken within the spectrum of strategies presented will likely reduce environmentally adverse and socially undesirable implications of disposable plastics. (Herrera Study, Executive Summary P.ES-1).” Refer to page 3-3 for “Composing” and “Policy Effectiveness” in reference with “Current Strategies for Reducing the Use of or Amount of Disposable Shopping Bags and Food Service Items in the Waste Stream.”

“City of Seattle Disposable Shopping Bags Green Fee and Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) Foam Food Container Ban FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ),” April 2, 2008, Seattle Public Utilities (accessed June 3-6, 2008).
Seattle Public Utilities and Seattle Climate Action combine their efforts to answer frequently asked questions concerning the City of Seattle Disposable Shopping Bags Green Fee and Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) Foam Food Container Ban.

Nickels and Conlin Propose Green Fee on Shopping Bags, Ban on Foam; Proposed Waste Prevention Measures Would Take Effect Jan. 1, 2009,” April 2, 2008. (accessed June 18, 2008).
Like hundreds of other cities across the world Seattle has proposed a 20 cent fee on disposable shopping bags. Along with the bag fee a foam ban is also in order. Nickels defines his thoughts with the following statement, “The answer to the question ‘paper or plastic is neither – both harm the environment. Every piece of plastic ever made is still with us. The best way to handle a ton of waste is not to create it. the proposal is all about forming new habits. Taking a reusable bag to grocery stores and pharmacies is a simple thing that has an enormous impact.”

Lee, Keith (American Retail Supply, Kent, WA) statement found in, “More Letters to the Editor” (accessed June 24, 2008).
Keith Lee, a retail bag provider, expresses his negative thoughts towards Seattle’s proposed bag tax. He proclaims, “The Seattle mayor’s proposal to tax paper and plastic bags in Seattle is bad for the environment, consumers, and retailers.”

“Nickels and Conlin Propose Green Fee on Shopping Bags, Ban on Foam’” City of Seattle, April 2, 2008.

“Fact Box-Plastic not Fantastic?; Bag bans around the world,” Reuters, May 27, 2008. (accessed June 10, 2008).
Reuters reports China’s outlaw of ultra-thin plastic bags to take action on June 1, 2008. China is taking action in effort to reduce pollution and increase resources. Reuters provides are descriptions of other countries current actions being taken to reduce and restrict the use of plastic bags; included is San Francisco, CA’s grocery bag outlaw.

Hocking, Martin B. (1994). “Reusable and Disposable Cups: An Energy Based Evaluation,” Environmental Management 18(6), pp. 889-899.
“A group of five different types of reusable and disposable hot drink cups have been analyzed in detail with respect to their overall energy costs during fabrication and use. Electricity generating methods and efficiencies have been found to be key factors in the primary energy consumption for the washing of reusable cups and a less important factor in cup fabrication. In Canada or the United States, over 500 or more use cycles, reusable cups are found to have about the same or slightly more energy consumption, use for use, as moulded polystyrene foam cups used once and then discarded. For the same area paper cups used once and discarded are found to consume less fossil fuel energy per use than any of the other cup types examined. Details of this analysis, which could facilitate the comparative assessment of other scenarios, are presented."

Lilienfeld, Robert, “Review of Life Cycle Data Relating To Disposable, Compostable Biodegradable, and Reusable grocery Bags,” The ULS Report, June 1, 2007.
(accessed June 3, 2008). The ULS Report examines credible research reports in focus on San Francisco’s March 2007 ban of plastic grocery bags. The San Francisco ban includes; the use of plastic grocery bags at supermarkets and large pharmacies. Objectives of the ban include; stopping environmental degradation and reducing litter, by replacing traditional plastic bags with reusable bags or bags made form paper or compostable plastics.

Benjamin, Daniel K., Editor Shaw, Jane S., “Eight Great Myths of Recycling,” Issue Number PS-28, September 2003.
Dainiel K. Benjamin provides a history of garbage systems, recycling programs, and rubbish around the world. He continues on to take a closer look into “garbage” misconceptions and provides facts proving great recycling myths and their falsehoods. Myths from “running out of resources,” ”recycling always protects the environment,” to “our garbage will bury us,” are revealed to inform on the truthfulness of recycling actions.

Hardy and Charles, “Resource and Environmental Profile Analysis of Polyethylene and Unbleached Paper Grocery Sacks,” Franklin Associates Study, p. 5-6
Hardy and Charles examine the recent attention being directed by environmentalists, government officials, commercial, and retail business, and legislators towards packaging bags. Two major concerns include; decreasing landfill capacity and the volume of certain packaging materials as municipal solid waste.

McKay, Betsy, “Pepsi to Cut Plastic Used in Bottles; Attempt Is Latest To Reduce Impact On Environment,” The Wall Street Journal, P. B2. May 6, 2008.
Current environmental waste and global warming concerns have convinced PepsiCo Inc. to reduce the amount of plastic used in bottles of some non-soda beverages. An example of the reduction in plastic is the Lipton Iced Tea bottle being reduced from 23.5 grams of plastic to 18.6 grams, which is nearly 20 percent.

Nolan-ITU (2002), “Plastic Shopping Bags—Analysis of Levies and Environmental Impacts, Report for the Department of Environment and Heritage,” Melbourne, Australia, Prepared by Nolan-ITU Pty Ltd, Victoria, Australia, Decemberat. (Accessed June 18, 2008).

“The PlasTax - About Ireland's Plastic Bag Tax,” (Accessed June 23, 2008).

“The Plastic Bag Levy will increase to 22 cent on Sunday 1st July 2007,” July 1, 2007. (Accessed June 23, 2008).

“The Wholes in the Argument for a Carrier Bag Tax; Why Plastic Carrier Bars are the best Environmental Choice you Can Make,”

“What is Styrofoam?” Dow Chemical Company.

“Plastic Bag Levy (Assessment and Collection) Bill 2002 and Plastic Bag (Minimization of Usage) Education Fund Bill 2002,” Submission to Senate Environment, Communications, Information Technology and the Arts Committee, Australian Retailers Association, June 2003.