Opinion: Plastic bag tax the right path

Hawke's Bay Today News Editor James Ford.

We've all done it with the best intentions at heart.

Invested in reusable shopping bags and told ourselves we'll do our bit for the environment.

A pledge to stop jamming our groceries in plastic bags, no matter how convenient they are.

And then, in my case, promptly forget to take the reusable bags to the supermarket.

The news that Hawke's Bay councils have got behind a call for a levy on single-use plastic bags, joining others around the country in an effort to reduce use, can only be positive.

This week, Local Government New Zealand sent a letter to Associate Minister for the Environment Scott Simpson calling for the Government to introduce a levy on single-use plastic bags.

We're not the first country to declare war on plastic bags.

Africa takes plastic bag-gate extremely seriously with more than 15 countries on the continent having banned or charging a tax on them.

European countries have also taken a major stand.

In 1994, Denmark was the first country to tax plastic bags.

Britain also banished plastic bags as a 5p tax saw use plummet by six billion.

While the European Union has said that it wants to see an 80 per cent drop in plastic-bag use by 2019.

But what's the best option for us?

Shops benefiting financially from a bag levy seems immoral and unfair.

In an ideal world the millions, and eventual billions, of dollars racked up by bag charges should all go towards environmental causes, surely?

Hopefully with the new levy in place, the kitchen drawer whose only apparent purpose is to house fistfuls of plastic bags will become a thing of the past.