D.C.’s bag tax

Washington D.C., in its infinite wisdom, has recently decided to install a tax on grocery bags. 5 cents per bag. The ostensible purpose was to pay for cleanup of all the bags that wind up in the river, or some such. The real life impact of said tax…well, I’ll let Jillian Melchior take it from here:

Anyone who has lived recently in Hong Kong and experienced their 6-cent bag tax knows how burdensome that levy makes commerce. There, grocery-store clerks must cram as much as possible into a single, side-split reusable bag – or face a perturbed customer. (Never underestimate the public’s desire to save a buck.) Milk, butter, and eggs become Tetris blocks; and consequently, the checkout lines grow longer and longer as clerks painstakingly pack for maximum space efficiency.

I can assure you that is exactly what happened during my trip to the grocery store yesterday. Long lines, befuddled checkout clerks, etc. But hey: The Anacostia will finally be clean, right? Right?!

Devious thought of the day: If I pay 5 cents for my bag, does this give me a clear conscience to throw the bags out onto the street? I mean, that 5 cents will pay for the cleanup of my horrid, nasty little bag, won’t it? If I pay $1 for 20 of them, I can just throw them out of the window of my apartment one at a time for an hour and not feel any guilt, right?