Here's some great evidence that an environment-saving tax can be a huge success:
The District's 5-cent bag tax generated about $150,000 during the month of January to help clean up the Anacostia River, even though residents have dramatically scaled back their use of disposable bags, according a report city officials issued Monday.
In its first assessment of how the new law is working, the D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue estimates that city food and grocery establishments issued about 3.3 million bags in January, which suggests a remarkable decrease. Prior to the bag tax taking effect Jan 1, the Office of the Chief Financial Officer had estimated that about 22.5 million bags were being issued per month in 2009.
From 22.5 million non-biodegradable plastic bags, most of which would end up polluting the environment, to 3.3 million in such a short amount of time! And all this based on a minuscule 5-cent per bag tax.
The revenues from this tax are earmarked to clean up the Anacostia river, which is heavily polluted by plastic bags. The severe drop in bag usage means that there isn't as much tax revenue coming in for the cleanup efforts, but the drop off in bags entering the river easily makes up for that.
This should be a lesson to other cities, states, and perhaps even the federal government. A small action, even if it's a "tax", can have a monumental impact on our environment.