Senator
Paul Pinsky and Delegate Barbara Frush have proposed legislation that would
allow the county to impose a bag tax.[1]
The idea behind PG 402-12 is that users of bags of a certain type should pay
for the cleanup costs rather than have the costs borne by everyone including
those who do not use such bags. Trash (litter) thrown onto the side of the
road, out of windows, and onto public sidewalks is a form of personal
externalization of costs analogous to businesses that externalize their
pollutants on to neighborhoods because they can and because they make larger
profits.[2] I
for one fill a small container once a day with cans, bottles and bags thrown
onto my property from passing cars. I pay (spend time) to clean up so someone
else can save time for their own use. I bear the cost of someone else's
convenience.
This
legislation however is about more than my property or my problem of keeping my property clean because of the actions of others. It is about the environment and the
ecological system services and resources that are compromised by massive externalization
of trash by some users of these bags. The Anacostia River is so severely impacted by
trash that in 2007 it was declared impaired by trash under the provisions of
the Clean Water Act, according to the Anacostia Watershed Society.[3] Plastic is a major pollutant of the ecosystems
of Prince George's County. Information provided by the Alice Ferguson
Foundation states that "[p]lastic is widely used due to its light weight, strength,
durability, versatility, and low cost. Plastics can take hundreds of years to
break down, so they may continue to entangle and kill animals year after year. One
study found that almost 90 percent of the debris floating on our oceans is
plastic."[4]
Because
the impact of the trash is not immediate and direct, but the cost of paying the
tax is, we find a policy cognitive dissonance. Why should users have to pay
more for needed goods now to prevent some nebulous (hard to see) benefit later?
In other words, what are ecosystem services and why should I care enough to pay
more to maintain them? And more to the point which ecosystem services are
impacted by my decision to use plastic bags without thought to what happens to
the big when I am finished with it (in the case of folks driving past my house
I estimate the use time to be less than two minutes from the convenience stores
and fast food down the road)
Like all
designated taxes, how much of what is collected would actually be used to mitigate
the plastic pollution and how much would go to cover existing and future debt
remains to be seen. Will the county use the tax monies to issue cleanup grants
to non-profits or to award cleanup contracts to businesses? Or will they
collect the funds and do nothing much if anything at all? Some are claiming
that it is too difficult to designate the monies for a specific purpose.
Council person Lehman is quoted as saying that "A bag tax in Prince
George's likely would go into the county's general fund."[5]
There
seem to be about ten reasons to be against this tax summed up in by Jenny
Rogers in a blog last year.[6] 1. Taxes aren’t the right approach because
they hurt consumer's buying power and therefore are anti prosperity. 2. Recycling bags is an important industry and
the tax will hurt it. 3. People reuse plastic bags, and a tax will reduce the
re-use. 4. If you tax plastic, you’ll encourage paper. (but paper is covered by this legislation) 5.
Statistics about how wonderful bag taxes work are inaccurate and misleading. 6.
Taxes penalize people unfairly. (But of course so does pollution) 7. Green
Seattle did not like the its bag tax and we should base our opinions on someplace
else. 8. Customers take anger out on retailers, not legislators. 9. Retailers
hate it. 10. the American Chemistry Council working with legislators will be
involved ( I have no idea what this means, of course they will be involved and
rightly so)
A
refresher to ecological system resources and services follows. How of these services, if any, are impacted by plastic and paper bags thrown into our communities?[7] And who should pay to pick them up?
1 Gas regulation Regulation of atmospheric chemical
composition. CO2/O2 balance,O3 for UVB protection, and SOx levels.
2 Climate regulation Regulation
of global temperature, precipitation, and other biologically mediated climatic
processes at global or local levels. Greenhouse gas regulation, DMS production
affecting cloud formation.
3 Disturbance regulation Capacitance, damping and integrity
of ecosystem response to environmental fluctuations. Storm protection, flood
control, drought recovery and other aspects of habitat response to
environmental variability mainly controlled by vegetation structure.
4 Water regulation Regulation of hydrological flows.
Provisioning of water for agricultural (such as irrigation) or industrial (such
as milling) processes or transportation.
5 Water supply Storage and retention of water. Provisioning
of water by watersheds, reservoirs and aquifers.
6 Erosion control and sediment retention Retention of soil
within an ecosystem. Prevention of loss of soil by wind, runoff, or other removal
processes, storage of stilt in lakes and wetlands.
7 Soil formation Soil formation processes. Weathering of
rock and the accumulation of organic material.
8 Nutrient cycling Storage, internal cycling, processing and
acquisition of nutrients.
Nitrogen fixation, N, P and other elemental or nutrient cycles.
9 Waste treatment Recovery of mobile nutrients and removal
or breakdown of excess or xenic nutrients and compounds. Waste treatment,
pollution control, detoxification.
10 Pollination Movement of floral gametes. Provisioning of
pollinators for the reproduction of plant populations.
11 Biological control Trophic-dynamic regulations of
populations. Keystone predator control of prey species, reduction of herbivory
by top predators.
12 Refugia Habitat for resident and transient populations.
Nurseries, habitat for migratory species, regional habitats for locally
harvested species, or overwintering grounds.
13 Food production That portion of gross primary production extractable
as food. Production of fish, game, crops, nuts, fruits by hunting, gathering,
subsistence farming or fishing.
14 Raw materials That portion of gross primary production extractable
as raw materials. The production of lumber, fuel or fodder.
15 Genetic resources Sources of unique biological materials
and products. Medicine, products for materials science, genes for resistance to
plant pathogens and crop pests, ornamental species (pets and horticultural
varieties of plants).
16 Recreation Providing opportunities for recreational
activities. Eco-tourism, sport fishing, and other outdoor recreational
activities.
17 Cultural Providing opportunities for non-commercial uses.
Aesthetic, artistic, educational, spiritual, and/or scientific values of
ecosystems.
[1] PG 402-12 Prince George's County - Authority
to Impose Fees for Use of Disposable Bags [accessed January 2, 2012] http://www.princegeorgeshousedelegation.com/legislation/bill-history?local=PG%20402-12
Synopsis: For the purpose of authorizing Prince George's County to
impose, by law, a fee on certain retail establishments for use of disposable
bags under certain circumstances; defining certain terms; and generally
relating to the authority for Prince George's County to impose a fee for use of
disposable bags.
[2] The
Definition of External Costs. [accessed January 2, 2012] http://www.externe.info/definition.html
"An external cost, also known as an externality, arises when the
social or economic activities of one group of persons have an impact on another
group and when that impact is not fully accounted, or compensated for, by the
first group."
[3] Support
A Prince George's County Bag Bill. Anacostia Watershed Society. November 29,
2011. [accessed January 2, 2012] http://www.anacostiaws.org/news/blog/support-prince-georges-county-bag-bill
[4] How
Can We Help Protect Our Water Resources? Litter and Debris in Our Waterways.
[accessed January 2, 2012] http://www.longwood.edu/cleanva/images/Sec3.litterinwaterways.pdf
[5]
Ben Giles. Prince George's County Council begins campaign for bag tax. WashingtonExaminoer.com
November 24, 2011 [accessed January 2, 2012] http://washingtonexaminer.com/local/maryland/2011/11/pg-county-council-begins-campaign-bag-tax
"It makes budgeting too difficult," she [Lehman] said. "It's good in theory, but in
these tough budget times, I'm just saying it's difficult politically and
physically to designate funds."
[6]
Jenny Rogers. 10 arguments from bag tax opponents. January 6, 2011. TBD.com.
[accessed January 2, 2012] http://www.tbd.com/articles/2011/01/10-arguments-from-bag-tax-opponents-43278.html
[7] Robert
Costanza, Ralph D'arge, Rudolf De Groot, Stephen Farber, Monica
Grasso, Bruce Hannon, Karin Limburg£, Shahid Naeem, Robert V. O'neill, Jose
Paruelo, Robert G. Raskin, Paul Sutton & Marjan Van Den Belt. The value of
the world's ecosystem services and natural capital. Nature 387, 253 - 260 (15
May 1997) [accessed January 2, 2012] http://www.uvm.edu/giee/publications/Nature_Paper.pdf
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