Question

Darren Johnson, Direct charges for bags have proved to be a simple, effective means of encouraging individuals to be responsible citizens. Why can't we implement an equivalent scheme here rather than waste time and resource discussing the problem while bag pollution continues?
Asked by wepVad on Oct 29 2007 10:35:07 AM and supported by 31 members MORE!

Answer

I just came back from Dublin. I was so impressed, where the tax of plastic bags has had a dramatic impact reducing plastic bag usage over 90 percent. Because the way they did it with the VAT tax return there has not been extra burden for retailers and actually retailers have made profit on the scheme because now they have to spend less money on the bags. There has been big cultural acceptance from day one, it has created the cultural shift. I am really impressed with Ireland. I do not see any reason why this could not work in UK. If you can introduce some sort of tax which cuts usage by 90 percent, it is clearly effective and I see no reason why it could not been introduced in UK. I just do not see why the government is so timid over the issue, if they want to introduce some simple effective green measure that would be something they could have done a long time ago.

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