All of Hawaii’s counties have passed bans on plastic shopping bags for most purchases, but state legislators now are proposing fees on all bags at checkout. Shoppers should get used to bringing reusable bags to the store to avoid the environmental consequences of all throw-away sacks, and a proposed 10-cent fee per plastic or paper bag would be good incentive to change habits.
Maui and Kauai counties already have plastic-bag prohibitions in place, Hawaii County’s measure took effect this month and Oahu is set to join the ban in 2015.
The ordinances allow plastic bags for fruit, vegetables, frozen foods, live fish and various other foods and flowers.
Still, it makes sense to prod the conversion toward recyclable bags at checkout by, as statewide bills propose, to charge a 10-cent fee for all single-use bags, with the estimated $15 million annually to go toward needed watershed protection. Such a move is working elsewhere, as more than two dozen California cities have similar combinations of bans and fees.
"There are a lot of things attached to (watershed) restoration, which includes water for agriculture, which includes green forests for tourism, which includes managing soil runoff so it doesn’t end up impacting our coral reefs," William Aila, the state’s land and natural resources director, said Monday.
Newly elected Democratic Sen. Russell Ruderman, a Hawaii County owner of a chain of natural foods and product stores, notes that the fee is part of a worldwide movement toward reusable bags, and people need to be encouraged to "move away from the ‘use it once and throw it away’ mentality."
He is right, as California shoppers in some cities have learned, even though it might be hard at first.
"It’s like sharp-edged dental floss," says Nancy F. Koehn, a retail industry historian at the Harvard Business School. "You’ve got to do it and maybe it’s good for you, but maybe it doesn’t feel so good."
Already, in the spirit of smart marketing and making the most of the inevitable, many more businesses are putting logos on reusable bags and people can be seen with the coolest, hippest reusable bags, notes a Santa Monica city analyst.
California legislators have pushed for a statewide fee of up to 10 cents, coupled with a ban on plastic bags.
The use of paper sacks has been frowned upon for decades because of the destruction of trees. However, reckless disposal of both paper and plastic is known to pollute Hawaii streams and coral reefs and strangle endangered marine animals, as pointed out by sponsors of the broad 10-cent fee.
Hawaii’s counties were right in their focus on banning plastic bags, but there can be an offshoot toward paper bags at an environmental cost. That can be answered with the dime-per-bag fee: It continues offering shoppers a checkout choice but at a cost; ideally, it should prompt a change in habits toward bringing along one’s own recycled bags.
The industry also has maintained that tourists are unlikely to have packed a reusable bag, but the onus should be on the retailer. Stores that cater to tourism are smart enough to make inexpensive cloth bags available to their customers.
Encouragingly, the proposed 10-cent bag fee is embraced by both the environmental and retail communities.
Plastic costs retailers a penny per bag but a dime for paper — so imposing the fee for both types at checkout keeps expenses in check for businesses.
Some retailers might regard a dime fee as a nuisance, but a stiff fine — the legislation calls for at least $1,000 — should get their attention, and their compliance.
Once it is law, shoppers and stores will make it work.
