Butterfly Rewards - earn free credits and redeem for good causes - learn more!
It is time to stop the excessive use of plastic bags!

Put PLASTAX To Action!

Target:
Local Supermarkets, Craig M. Johnson- NY Senator
Sponsored by: 
Please visit our website at: www.reducing4more.wordpress.com

Plastic bags pose a threat to our environment. Yes, the grocery bags that we get free from the supermarkets. Every year, the United state uses 380 billion plastic bags per year, while 500 billion to 1 trillion are used worldwide. The annual cost for U.S. retailers is about $4 billion per yea. The production of plastic bags also use the petroleum we use to fuel our cars! Also, plastic bags find their way to the ocean, harming the sea life that is found there, such as sea turtles who think the plastic bag is jellyfish. Upon of all of that, plastic bags don't biodegrade. Instead, they photodegrade, which means that they break down into toxic bits and contaminate the environment around them.

So what can we do? We can introduce a plastax, a small "tax" or fee for each of the plastic bags we get in the supermarket. We get so many plastic bags in the supermarket when it is not even necessary. Perhaps a 3 cents or 5 cents fee on each bag can raise our awareness, and gradually decrease our usage of plastic bags. The money would not be used as a profit, but preferably donated to an environmental organization.
Then, this would encourage us to use reusable bags, which will reduce our usage of plastic bags! PlasTax is already used in Ireland, which decreased approximately 94% of the plastic bags used- which was about 1 billion less plastic bags! If the United States and other countries could follow their example, we can decrease the amount of plastic bags used drastically! SO LET'S TAKE ACTION.


Remember... just a small change can make a whole difference in the world.


*We are a group of high school students who hope that a group of people's action can spread and inspire others*

Thank you!
Please visit our website at: www.reducing4more.wordpress.com

Plastic bags pose a threat to our environment. Yes, the grocery bags that we get free from the supermarkets. Every year, the United state uses 380 billion plastic bags per year, while 500 billion to 1 trillion are used worldwide. The annual cost for U.S. retailers is about $4 billion per yea. The production of plastic bags also use the petroleum we use to fuel our cars! Also, plastic bags find their way to the ocean, harming the sea life that is found there, such as sea turtles who think the plastic bag is jellyfish. Upon of all of that, plastic bags don't biodegrade. Instead, they photodegrade, which means that they break down into toxic bits and contaminate the environment around them.

So what can we do? We can introduce a plastax, a small "tax" or fee for each of the plastic bags we get in the supermarket. We get so many plastic bags in the supermarket when it is not even necessary. Perhaps a 3 cents or 5 cents fee on each bag can raise our awareness, and gradually decrease our usage of plastic bags. The money would not be used as a profit, but preferably donated to an environmental organization.
Then, this would encourage us to use reusable bags, which will reduce our usage of plastic bags! PlasTax is already used in Ireland, which decreased approximately 94% of the plastic bags used- which was about 1 billion less plastic bags! If the United States and other countries could follow their example, we can decrease the amount of plastic bags used drastically! SO LET'S TAKE ACTION.


Remember... just a small change can make a whole difference in the world.


*We are a group of high school students who hope that a group of people's action can spread and inspire others*

Thank you!

We the undersigned would like to like to propose to a tax on disposable plastic bags. Every year, United States consumes 380 billion plastic bags and only 1% to 2% of those bags are actually recycled. The rest of the bags are left to litter onto streets, finding their ways to waterways and getting caught in trees.

Plastic bags pose a huge threat in our environment. During the production, distribution and disposal of these bags, many greenhouse gases are released into the air, causing global warming. For every five plastic bags, one kilogram of carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere. Plastic bags are just about everywhere, and when they floating in the sea, they are easily mistaken as food. Hundreds of marine animals die because of mistaking plastic bags as food. Also once plastic bags are made, they stay on earth forever. Though there are biodegradable plastic bags, they are not really biodegradable. Biodegradable plastic bags are just bags which can be broken down to smaller polymers (invisible to the naked eye) faster than regular plastic bags. These polymers are still toxic to the environment, and they pollute the soil and waterways and are accidentally ingested by animals. These problems can all be avoided by not using plastic bags. 

Replacing plastic bags with paper bags are not the answer, because many studies have shown that paper bags has almost the same amount of negative effects to the environment as plastic bags do. We need to stop encouraging the usage of plastic bags and add a tax onto the each plastic bag taken by the consumer.

Many countries have taken the initiative encourage the use of reusable bags instead of using disposable plastic bags. Ireland is one of these countries and the Irish government had introduced a tax on plastic bags (PlasTax) which turned to be a great success. Within weeks PlasTax, the consumption of plastic bags dropped 94%.  China is also a country which has taken a step towards reducing the consumption of plastic bags. Many stores have taken the initiative as well. Such as Whole Foods Market, which has planned to ban the usage of plastic bags, and the IKEA stores in United States have started to charge a nickel for each plastic bag a customer takes. 

So many people around the world are trying to help save the environment. Now it is time for United States to as well. Hopefully, by adding tax onto plastic bags, consumers will stop relying on using plastic bags and eventually we would be able to ban the usage of plastic bags. Thank you for taking your time to read this letter, and we hope some action could be taken.

signature
goal: 500
 
627
signatures!
sign petition!
50
50 log in or sign up to start earning Butterfly Credits today!
Already a Care2 member? log in

This petition is closed. Thank you for your interest.

You can do more! Show me more petitions »
We signed the "Put PLASTAX To Action!" petition!
# 627:
2:51 pm PDT, Aug 30, Laura Dicus, Washington
# 626:
5:07 am PDT, Aug 29, Bethany Allard, New York
# 625:
6:49 pm PDT, Aug 27, Carolyn Deso, New York
# 624:
8:12 am PDT, Aug 26, John Morrison, Nebraska
I purchased some clothing from a thrift store and after the cashier rang me up she apologized that she didn't have any bags. I said, "are you crazy? that's awesome!" My purchases are bagged for any and every reason. Think about how beneficial it would be for our planet earth if we just carried a cloth bag around with us?
# 623:
2:34 pm PDT, Aug 23, Surabhi Gupta, Massachusetts
Plastic bags are unnecessary yet we use them because they are freely available. It is a shameful practice of using once and throwing away billions of plastic bags a year. Plastic waste has a negative effect on our health and environment so it does not make sense why we are allowing this destructive practice to continue. There should definately be a tax on them.
# 622:
11:05 pm PDT, Aug 21, Shannon Pearson, California
# 621:
11:37 pm PDT, Aug 20, Kari Copeland, Washington
# 620:
6:58 pm PDT, Aug 19, Andrew Serrano, New York
# 619:
11:02 am PDT, Aug 19, Name not displayed, California
# 618:
5:00 am PDT, Aug 19, Lindsay Denman, Georgia
# 617:
5:14 pm PDT, Aug 18, Name not displayed, North Carolina
# 616:
11:31 pm PDT, Aug 15, Jamie Boff, Ohio
# 615:
7:55 am PDT, Aug 13, Kara Dillingham, Pennsylvania
# 614:
2:01 pm PDT, Aug 11, Shannon Smith, Canada
Bags use petroleum which takes energy to process. In addition, they don't decompose very easily and can cause some animals to eat them and get sick. Sea turtles are the biggest victims. In addition, some plastics contain phalates and dioxin precursors that are released upon contact with continuous warmth or heat. This can hurt organisms or change their sex hormones...especially frogs.
# 613:
4:51 pm PDT, Aug 7, Victory Nichols, California
Americans are good people. We care about this world of ours--regardless of political party. Nevertheless, change will not happen until it becomes economically sensible. Even a small tax on plastic and paper bags will make a big difference. Please support a tax on grocery bags.
# 612:
10:52 pm PDT, Aug 6, Deborah L Camp, Texas
# 611:
9:05 am PDT, Aug 3, Colleen Burnham, Massachusetts
# 610:
6:04 pm PDT, Aug 1, Melissa De Repentigny, Canada
# 609:
2:55 pm PDT, Jul 31, Greta Malkotzoglou, Greece
# 608:
1:21 pm PDT, Jul 31, Andi Alnwick, New York
# 607:
9:31 am PDT, Jul 29, Name not displayed, Arizona
# 606:
8:39 am PDT, Jul 29, Carin Abrahamsohn, New Jersey
# 605:
10:33 pm PDT, Jul 28, Jonathan Kane, Florida
# 604:
7:48 am PDT, Jul 28, Tia Goodwin, Montana
# 603:
12:53 pm PDT, Jul 24, Greenstream Gourmet, California
# 602:
5:02 pm PDT, Jul 19, Gayla Patterson, South Carolina
Introduced 25 years ago, plastic bags are now consumed at an astounding rate of approximately 500 billion per year globally, or 1 million per minute. It is estimated that 1% or 5 billion of these bags end up as wind blow litter each year. These bags that take up to 1,000 years to biodegrade, often wind up in waterways or the landscape, becoming eyesores and eventually degrading water and soil as they break down into tiny toxic bits. Their manufacture and disposal also uses large quantities of non-renewable resources, especially petroleum, a key ingredient in plastic. Large amounts of global warming gases are released during their production, transportation, and disposal. Environmentally, disposable plastic bags are a serious problem. Hundreds of thousands of marine animals, including endangered sea turtles, die every year when they eat plastic bags mistaken for food. Paper bags are not the answer, since independent studies show they have roughly as many negative impacts as plastic ones. These problems could be avoided by advocating the use of reusable bags instead, and the consumption of fewer disposable bags. The negative impacts of disposable bags could be reduced easily and significantly by charging for their usage at the point of purchase. In cooperation with retailers, the Irish government introduced a plastic bag tax (PlasTax) last year that has slashed consumption over 90% and raised $9.6 million for environmental and waste management projects. Another benefit is that stores save money on bag purchases and improve their public image. For example, Superquinn, one of the largest Irish grocery chains, says the number of bags it distributes for free has dropped by 97.5%. The PlasTax is a win-win solution to the disposable bag problem. It also helps create the foundation for consumer environmental responsibility and market-based solutions to environmental problems.
# 601:
6:50 pm PDT, Jul 13, Linh Vu, Viet Nam
Copyright © 2009 Care2.com, inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved