Plastic Bag Fee Might be on the Ballot This Summer

"Green Fee" by our precious James Callan, care of the Seattlest Flickr pool.

We've been talking about the proposed 20-cent plastic/paper bag "green fee" for quite a while now, but it looks as if there's a new chapter in this neverending story. In the wake of the "good" "people" in the chemistry industry working hard to derail the measure, yesterday the City Council's Environment committee voted to put the question to the unwashed masses. The full City Council must approve this action, but we totally expect them to put off actually doing something by once again booting the issue to the citizenry of Seattle. (This brings up one of our Seattle politics pet peeves: Um, why exactly do we elect you as our representatives if we the people have to ultimately decide everything ourselves? Politics ain't about consensus, guys.)

The measure would be on the August 19th ballot, meaning we're destined to hear a lot more about this delightful issue between now and then.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@seattlest.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Audrey in News on March 25, 2009 1:00 PM

Comments [rss]

z33bleoop

i fail to see what's wrong with asking the citizens of this city if they'd like to save the planet or save $0.20. personally, i'm going to vote no on the fee. i'll decide if i want to use a cloth bag or get my paper bags for my garbage and recycling; thanks!

Audrey

I just get sick of having to vote on everything (see the Viaduct and the monorail x 4), instead of my elected officials making some of those decisions for me. They were elected to represent our interests, right? So how come we have to keep making those interests explicitly known to them?