“When it goes from zero to even a very small charge, it can feel very bad,” said Dan Ariely, an economics professor at Duke University. “It creates a very small financial burden but a very big emotional reaction.”

That quote from an interesting article in The New Republic that talks about the success of the Washington, DC plastic bag tax. On 1/1, stores began charging shoppers a tax of a nickle per plastic bag and bag use has gone down 50%. The article then makes the connection to a carbon tax and how even a tiny fee is better than no fee because of reason Ariely states above.

The article also mentions a failed $0.20 bag tax in Seattle that potentially reached too high. Nickle bag tax for everyone!

“In a victory for the Save the Plastic Bag Coalition, a group of manufacturers, distributors and suppliers, Div. Five held that the California Environmental Quality Act required an environmental impact report given evidence increased paper bag use might significantly affect the environment.”

“Brownsville officials are hoping a unanimously passed ban on plastic grocery bags will make the city the first in Texas to rid the landscape of the so-called “urban tumbleweeds.”“

“Legislation will be passed next year banning the supply by retailers to customers of all lightweight single-use bags.”

If you haven’t ever seen pictures of dead baby birds with tons of plastic in their stomachs, click through here. These photographs, by Chris Jordan (Running the Numbers), were taken 2K miles from the nearest continent, but close enough to the giant fucking pile of plastic shit that swirls out by Hawaii. Oh and by the way, there’s another one off of Japan, too. One problem with a giant fucking pile of plastic shit twice the size of Texas and more than 30 feet deep is adult birds fly over it looking for food. When they see a tasty looking bottle cap, they scoop it up and feed it to their babies. Then the pictures linked to above happen. Take a look.

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The Kauai County Council voted 4-2 yesterday to ban plastic carryout bags.”

“By a vote of 9-1, San Jose City Council members asked city staff to draw up an ordinance Tuesday that would ban single-use plastic and paper carry-out bags from the city’s retail establishments by Jan. 1, 2011.”

This garbage patch is the reason I track all the plastic bag bans around the world. Via Twitter.

“The flimsy bags have turned into post-purchase tumbleweeds polluting the landscape of the Outer Banks, which relies on its landscape to attract tourists.”

“Yau said a recent opinion poll showed that over 90% of Hong Kong residents agreed with reducing the use of plastic bags and 80% said they would actively support the environmental levy scheme to handle the abuse of plastic bags.”