We've heard about taxes on plastic bags working in other countries, such as Ireland. The idea of a plastax, or tax on plastic (generally bags) results in much less use of plastic. People are more inclined to bring resuable bags to shop than pay a tax. And the money collected from this tax goes to environmental causes. But can it work here?Washington DC's 5 cent tax on plastic bags, instituted just this past January, has already proven to have a phenomenal impact: the number of plastic bags handed out by supermarkets and other establishments dropped from the 2009 monthly average of 22.5 million to just 3 million in January. While significantly reducing plastic waste, the tax simultaneously generated $150,000 in revenue, which will be used to clean up the Anacostia River. Read more about this in Treehugger.
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