NEIGHBORHOOD STORE ASSOCIATION
Vol. 11 No. 2
Seattle voters defeat bag tax
In August, Seattle voters defeated a plan that would have imposed a 20-cent fee on every paper or plastic bag provided by grocery stores, drug stores or convenience stores. Voters rejected the City Council plan by 58 to 42 percent. The proposal would have added the per bag fee to each consumer’s total purchase. Small stores would have kept the entire 20-cent fee, while stores with gross sales of more than $1 million a year would keep only 5 cents, with the rest going back to the City for recycling and environmental education programs. The City was expecting to receive about $10 million annually in new revenue.
Currently there are no statewide bans on plastic bags, but there are some citywide bans in place. Four states, i.e. California, New York, Rohde Island and Delaware, have enacted mandatory plastic bag recycling laws, where grocers and retailers that provide bags are required to provide recycling bins for customers to return the plastic bags.
Failure of the bag fee proposal in Seattle is expected to make it harder to implement similar proposals elsewhere.
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