New Plastic Bag Tax Has DC Shoppers Thinking Twice

On January 1st, 2010, Washington D.C. implemented a 5 cent tax on all plastic bags used in the districts grocery stores. Now, when shoppers are checking out, they have to pay 5 cents for each plastic bag they use for their groceries.

While this does not seem like a hefty price to pay, after only a month, shoppers have been going out of their way to avoid those bags. Shoppers all over town are bringing a reusable bag or simply trying to carry all their groceries or takeout in their arms to their car or office. A Safeway in the Northwest area has seen 6,000 less bags being used a week!

By most measures, it has been a huge success. DC's experiment proves that a price on something that was previously free has a huge effect on people's behavior. The downside, of course, is the outrage from some of the public who may be slow to understand the benefits of such a tax and only see it as a scam.

There have been states to implement bottled water taxes, but never with this kind of success. What kind of policy do you think would work to make bottled water less appealing? Ideas?