It’s bad enough having to endure nasty looks and snide remarks when you answer the cashier’s bag preference inquiry with, “Plastic.”

Patrons shake their heads in mock horror and mutter quietly – but not inaudibly -- doomsday maledictions.

“Plastic bags, oil in his veins,” laments a tie-dyed remnant from the ‘60s. Sadder than that nihilistic view is her accusing little girl (named “Sparrow” or “Forest Nymph,” no doubt), perhaps 3 or 4, agonizing, “The earth is dying and you are a murderer.”

But imagine having to pay for the privilege of being so thoroughly demonized.

Washington, D.C. grocery shoppers now pay 5 cents for the prerogative of toting their goods away in evil, oil-based, land-fill-clogging, river-choking sacks. And not all of them are happy campers.

“I think it’s unnecessary,” Daniel Koroma, 57, told the Associated Press as he toted groceries home from a supermarket in a plastic bag that he’d paid for. “They sell you the groceries; they should give you something to put them in.”

San Francisco has banned plastic bags altogether. Washington D.C.'s law is the first of its kind in the United States. Environmental activists are keeping their fingers crossed, hoping that success in the nation’s capital will provide them the ammunition to embark upon similar shakedowns across the country.

“Whichever state is going to pull this is off is going to have the potential to be seen as the one that has cracked this problem,” preened Vincent Cobb, founder of the reuseit.com Web site that promotes recycling and sells reusable bags.

Ironically, a quick trip to Cobb’s site reveals not only reusable bags, but countless plastic items for sale, including “use & toss” bottles. Even an alleged Greenie’s gotta make some green.

Although Michigan has yet to legislate against the use of plastic bags, efforts have been made to do so, both at the state and local levels. A national effort, the “Plastic Bag Reduction Act of 2009,” was introduced in the U.S. Congress last April but has yet to be acted upon. The law would have placed a 5-cent fee on “single use” bags from grocery stores and other retail outlets beginning Jan. 1, 2010, and increased to 25 cents in 2015.

That’s a prototypical example of the government employing the “whack ‘em til they change their behavior” tax. Say, how about a similar tax that addressed politicians’ penchant for spending taxpayer money faster than a Ritalin-addicted kid in a candy store? Maybe 5-percent tax on their salary followed by an increase to 25 percent after five years, or until they realize what's best for them?

While the law has sparked debate in Washington, local shoppers in Wayne County can be seen doing a version of the recycle two-step at certain grocery outlets, such as Save-A-Lot and Aldi. Both chains sell plastic bags to shoppers but encourage the bring-your-own method. Shoppers caught unaware of the policy often choose to juggle their items to the parking lot and into their cars rather than spring for bags at a dime per pop. Aldi, in an effort to reduce labor costs, also charges a refundable 25-cent fee to “rent” a grocery cart, which is redeemed upon returning the cart to its proper place. Aldi tries to pass on any savings in lower food prices; they don’t proclaim that green policies are the driving force.

Statistics abound regarding the effectiveness of reducing plastic waste through such thrifty measures. Nearly 4 million tons of waste plastic is generated in the U.S. each year, according to the EPA, of which only 1 percent is recycled. Of course, local municipalities could aid the recycling effort by allowing plastic bags to be included in curbside pickups. Most don’t, at least here in metro Detroit.

San Francisco enacted its ban in 2007 and Los Angeles will join the eco-party in July, when shoppers will be charged 25 cents for a paper or biodegradable bag. But attempts by other U.S. cities and states have met with opposition, most notably in trendy Seattle, where voters last August overturned legislation to charge 20 cents per bag.

Keith Christman, managing director of Plastics Markets for the American Chemistry Council, argues that Seattle’s attempt to charge for bags angered residents who were already overwhelmingly recycling and reusing their bags, which he says is the better option.

The Washington, D.C. bag fee was part of a larger effort to generate revenue for the cash-strapped city and also included an increase in parking rates. Council member Jack Evans disagreed with the “fees,” which he called taxes.

"Nationally, people are fed up with the government nickeling and diming consumers. That's what we're doing," Evans, chairman of the Committee on Finance and Revenue, told the Washington Post. "You can call 'em fees. They're all taxes. If it's a duck or a chicken, it's all a bird. . . . Our challenge going forward is, with flat revenues, what are we going to do?"

There’s no denying that fees such as the one implemented in Washington force consumers to ask questions, such as “Do I really need eight bags?” or “Shouldn’t I just buy my own canvas bags?” And that’s good. But our leaders in Washington, who don’t bat an eye when talking about multi-trillion-dollar deficits, cannot possibly fathom how a nickel can be a tipping point for some of their own residents. It’s just one more example of how out of touch politicians have become.

We are charged “fees” on concert tickets and sporting events and hotel rooms and rental cars and . . . well, you get it. And most of those fees are hidden and nearly impossible to avoid. So why don’t D.C. shoppers borrow from the liberal playbook and protest this seemingly trivial tax. How?

Patronize your local supermarket (choose a large chain; try to avoid sticking it to mom-and-pop shops, endangered as they are), shop to your feet swell, then stack those two grocery carts full of items onto the conveyor belt. After the cashier (food item registrar?) totals up your purchase, notify her (sorry, cashiers are still predominantly female) that you will not be paying the 5-cent-per-bag surcharge. If she insists that the law requires you to do so, simply inform her that you no longer desire to buy any groceries – and leave.

A few days of this behavior by legions of angry shoppers at markets within D.C. might make the City fathers re-examine their “fees” policy.

SOURCE: Examiner.com