Earlier the current session, State Sen. Robert Hartwell introduced a bill that would impose a a 10-cent fee on all disposable shopping bags at Vermont retailers.
The bill would also prohibit the sale and distribution of non-recyclable bags, and ensure that the all bags meet certain environmental standards.
The majority of the fee would pass into the Waste Management Assistance Fund, although businesses would keep one cent of every dime as a processing fee.
Hartwell, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Energy, is concerned not only with easing pressure on stressed landfills and recycling centers, but also with litter reduction.
“When you see plastic bags as litter, it’s a little different — it’s hanging out of a tree, it’s stuck on a guardrail, it’s on somebody’s car,” says Hartwell as he voices concern over the state’s recent littering problems.
Vermont is currently one of eight states considering legislation that would limit the use of plastic bags. Major cities such as Washington D.C., San Francisco and Los Angeles have also enacted bag taxes in the past several years.
Although it has been met with opposition from the business community, Hartwell’s proposal is less drastic than legislation being considered in California, Washington and Massachusetts. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, these states aim to ban all single-use bags completely.
Jim Harrison, president of the Vermont Grocers’ Association, acknowledges that cutting down on non-reusable bag use is in the retailers’ best interest, but he worries that a tax is the wrong move.
“We have a lot of members who are very concerned about adding a new tax or fee on their customers,” said Harrison. Similar bills have been proposed in the past, but never approved. If instituted, the tax will begin in July, 2015.
Hartwell expects his committee to vote on the bill later this week, saying that an amendment, to reduce the fee to 5-cents, is likely.
10-Cent Bag Tax Bill Debate Heats Up
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