Irish Not Too Drunk To Come Up With a Good Idea

It's OK, I'm part Irish; we're allowed to make fun of ourselves! But let's not digress: Last summer, Whole Foods was selling those "I'm Not a Plastic Bag" bags, which people were supposed to use for groceries -- in order to save plastic bags. That idea obviously didn't work.

The Irish, however, got it right. The New York Times explains that Ireland in 2002 placed a 33-cent tax on each plastic bag that a customer receives at a store. You could request plastic and pay for it, or bring your own bag for free:

Within weeks, plastic bag use dropped 94 percent. Within a year, nearly everyone had bought reusable cloth bags, keeping them in offices and in the backs of cars. Plastic bags were not outlawed, but carrying them became socially unacceptable — on a par with wearing a fur coat or not cleaning up after one’s dog.

Why hasn't such a policy been instituted in America? Or at least in NYC? As I think I've said before, up to a trillion plastic bags end up in a landfill each year. And, as National Geographic puts it:

As a result, the (plastic) totes are everywhere. They sit balled up and stuffed into the one that hangs from the pantry door. They line bathroom trash bins. They carry clothes to the gym. They clutter landfills. They flap from trees. They float in the breeze. They clog roadside drains. They drift on the high seas. They fill sea turtle bellies.

If that sea turtle line doesn't get ya, then nothing will. I'm not saying that I never use plastic bags, but I've definitely cut down on my use. Even my Republican mother bought me cloth bags from her local Florida supermarket!

Somewhere, Al Gore Is Gently Weeping

The whole point of Anya Hindmarch's "I'm Not a Plastic Bag" campaign was to save plastic bags from being used. Somewhere between 500 billion and 1 trillion of plastic bags go to landfills each year, and it's nice to think that someone might walk into Whole Foods, buy one of Ms. Hindmarch's bags for 15 bucks, and use it to carry his groceries home (shown, right), thereby saving a plastic bag.
Hindmarch's bags, as her Web site notes, have sold out in the United States. Is this because the U.S. is finally jumping on the Gore bandwagon and becoming a bastion of environmental responsibility?! Nope, no, of course not. It's because we love fashion!
I've seen many girls in New York carrying the sold out bag -- as a purse. No one is using it for groceries, no one is logging anything as much as a bottle of wine or a magazine in it.
Then, today, my co-worker reported that he actually saw a picture of irony walking down 23rd Street this morning: A girl wearing an "I'm Not a Plastic Bag" purse on her shoulder while carrying a plastic bag.
Was the offender too dumb to note the irony? I would have at least been smart enough to stash the plastic bag in my Anya Hindmarch bag, thereby escaping such uninvited scrutiny.