Aspen City Council Approves The Fee On Plastic Bags
Levying a tax on plastic bags is among the many processes employed by governments around the world to decrease their usage. Numerous countries the world over have actually taken the step to entirely ban the usage of plastic bags. But those that could not, decided to go withthis course of action and made it mandatory for the store and business owners to impose a fee on plastic bags.
A price of .20 for each throwaway plastic or paper bag may seem like not much, but multiply this with the number of times you go to the grocery store every year and the number of bags you may have to pay for each time. That amount could certainly run over $100. Instead of spending that much money on plastic bags establishments should offer reusable bags produced with recycled and organic materials. Durable eco friendly reusable bags do not only last longer than plastic, but they are more fashionable and less damaging to the environment too. Even though the decision to charge a fee on plastic bags wouldn’t completely remove them from the environment, the government intends to at the very least lessen the volume of waste.
Aspen City Council approves the fee on plastic bags, hopes to reduce plastic waste
As stated in a Aspen Daily News story, the Aspen City Council had recently approved the “Waste Reduction Fee Ordinance”, which implements the 20-cent fee on throw-away plastic or paper bags handed out in the city. 4 of the five members of the city council had backed the ordinance, which would be finalized in September. Like ordinances are also being contemplated by the Basalt and Carbondale town councils in an effort to trigger citizens to bring their own cloth or jute bags for food shopping. The earlier efforts of the governments to educate the people to lower utilization of plastic bags were not very effective leading them to resort to this tactic.
Current plastic bag use
If the typical plastic bag consumption is evaluated, an individual in the US would likely end up paying out approximately $80 for plastic grocery bags on a yearly basis. By making people pay a specific amount every single time they ask for plastic or paper grocery or shopping bags, the councils intend to increase the utilization of bags which might be reused plenty of times. This fee would be incurred on each bag that is given to the customers in local markets although not in retail stores or eateries. The revenue generated with this fee will most probably be used to teach folks about the perils of utilizing throw away bags as well as implementing programs to eliminate contaminated waste materials in the region.
In addition, money could be invested in getting recycled grocery bags into the city and circulating them among neighborhoods for a fee. The ordinance also allows grocers to keep five percent of the fee, up to $100, and permits them to use it for implementing the program and managing the costs. The local authorities will also be auditing the local grocers for compliance and also for making a note of plastic bag consumption reduction in public records. However, should this procedure fail, the council will be left with a big amount of unallocated funds from the program and very little decline in plastic bag utilization.
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