If you aren’t a Seattle area resident you probably haven’t heard about the newest proposal initiated by Mayor Greg "King of the Pointless Gesture" Nickels: a twenty-cent fee for every plastic or paper bag used by your Grocery store to pack your wares. Although acknowledging that it will be "costly," Nickels says the proposal is necessary because people "need to do right by the environment."
There's only one problem...there is no evidence showing plastic bags "harm the environment."
The widely quoted statistic is that plastic bags murder sea life. There is -- however -- no support for that contention. In light of Seattle's proposed ordinance I reviewed scads of websites to find support for this "kills marine life" premise. None cited any primary or original source. For good reason. As the Times of London reported last year:
The central claim of campaigners is that the bags kill more than 100,000 marine mammals and one million seabirds every year. However, this figure is based on a misinterpretation of a 1987 Canadian study in Newfoundland, which found that, between 1981 and 1984, more than 100,000 marine mammals, including birds, were killed by discarded nets.
The Canadian study did not mention plastic bags.
I recognize this isn't the kind of post that will make me popular but not all "environmental laws" are worth the cost. Like it or not, this proposal is expected to cost Seattle consumers approximately $16 million next year. If we wish to modify people's conduct at a cost of over $16 million, let's at least enact change that has a point.