Maybe this will help consumers remember to bring their canvas bags to shop with

One of the amusing things about the trend of "green" shopping bags at grocery stores (gleaned this nugget from the FMI Sustainability Summit last month) is that consumers love to buy the "green" canvas grocery bag but they often forget to bring it back to the store and shop with it. Perhaps they used it for suntan lotion or what have you, but some consumers just don't make the connection that the point of a "green" bag is to use it again and again at the market. Maybe a "green" tax on paper or plastic will help us remember; along that line, here is a story about a city contemplating a tax on paper or plastic grocery bags. From the story in The Ballard News Tribune:


Paper or plastic? Beginning in January either choice could cost you.The City Council's committee decision on a proposal to tax all disposable shopping bags is scheduled for July 22. If approved by the committee and later by the full council, Seattle consumers would be charged a 20-cent "green fee" on each paper or plastic shopping bag they use in grocery, drug and convenience stores.The proposed legislation, expected to take effect on Jan. 1, would also ban the use of expanded polystyrene, more commonly known by the brand name Styrofoam, in all restaurants, cafeterias and grocery stores.The bill was designed to encourage shoppers to switch to reusable bags, reduce litter and diminish garbage land filling.


TK: It seems a little draconian to saddle paper with a green tax too. Why not tack on a surcharge for driving an SUV to the supermarket?..Wait, that's on next month's city council agenda....