Greenville City Councilman Russell Stall is floating the idea of placing fees on plastic bags… to prevent the bags from floating in the city’s waterways.
Grocery stores Aldi + Lidl already charge small fees for plastic (and paper) bags, but there’s currently no city-wide ordinance requiring a charge in Greenville. Several other S.C. cities (mostly coastal) have already gone as far as banning plastic bags entirely – including Hilton Head, Mount Pleasant, Charleston, and James Island. Charleston + Mount Pleasant also banned styrofoam take-out containers.
Those in favor of adding a fee to plastic bags say it would dramatically cut down on litter and help make our rivers cleaner.
Washington D.C. was at the forefront of implementing a $0.05 bag fee ten years ago, after a study found that plastic bags made up 70% of the trash in its Anacostia River. The slogan is “Skip the Bag, Save the River.” By 2014, the number of plastic bags found in river cleanups was down 72%.
Opponents of the fee say that it burdens everyday shoppers without significantly changing consumer habits. (As one Memphis resident said in regards to a proposed plastic bag tax, “When you have a large family and seven cents a bag, that’s a lot.”)
And although the money is supposed to go toward environmental restoration, some argue that fees are just a way to divert consumer money toward the government. Some even contest that reusable bags are less sanitary than plastic.
Keep Greenville County Beautiful + Let’s Keep Travelers Rest Beautiful say they’re currently working together to study the impacts of plastic bag fees.
