A bag tax for the bad consumer

Icare about my use of plastic bags a little, but only a little. And a small confession, I’ve just started to throw them away after each shop.

It’s not that I don’t care about the environment, I do. I recycle religiously, I try to buy environmentally friendly products free of pesticides and sprays, and I do try to reuse shopping bags where I can.

But the plastic bag draw runneth over, and our reusable shopping bags still contain various curiosities from our move at the start of the year.

Being forced to spend more on something than it’s worth sends me into an incredulous rage.

It follows that the Greens’ proposed 15 cent tax on plastic shopping bags might be enough to change my habits – while adding only an extra dollar onto the weekly shop. But incentive is a funny thing. For a small fee, I could find the minor pang of guilt I feel when I put five plastic bags in the rubbish each week, suddenly alleviated. The Greens’ policy after all would see the proceeds of the tax go towards charitable organisations working on waste minimisation. Admirable.

Prime Minister John Key is uninterested in the policy – imposing a tax to try and force behavioural change, for the Government to forgo all revenue raised from said tax, doesn’t seem appealing to him.

When weighing all matters up, it doesn’t seem appealing to me, either.

Alleviating guilt is obviously no reason to impose a tax, and while it might change the behaviour of a large group of people – it’s a drop in the bucket when considering the myriad environmental issues caused by waste, packaging and human activity.

Many charities are doing great work in the area, but it also doesn’t sit right for the Government to force charitable donations.

Using that revenue to do the Government’s own work is more justifiable, or even supporting local councils to expand their recycling capabilities – which can be costly.

Should a tax be imposed on every product that’s environmentally harmful?

Or might it be better to ramp up the collective guilt, and change behaviour through education and awareness of the consequences of such a wasteful existence?

According to the Greens, 100,000 marine mammal deaths are caused each year by plastic waste, which has made its way into our oceans. You know many of those will be endangered, or at least adorable, species; turtles, seals and any number of precious birds.

Even if they’re not adorable, no creature should suffer death by plastic bag.

This weekend, I’ll make the conscious effort to finish the last of our unpacking.