In New York, plastic grocery bags have been outlawed. You can get paper bags, but the stores charge 5 cents per. Reusable bags are now the standard, but that requires some longer term use to pay off.

Where I live they are mainly banned as well and if you don’t bring your own bags then you have to pay a small tax for paper bags. I’m mainly ok with this since we drive to the store and can plan ahead. It’s a bit annoying when you go somewhere on the way home though and don’t have them with you. If the money was being used to actually fund proper recycling I wouldn’t care but it’s probably being used to pay off interest on government bonds.

This is an argument that comes up often, e.g. gas tax should be used for roads.

The misconception is that it sees taxes only as a means of generating revenue to offset the cost or externalities of what’s being taxed.

But taxes are also important in steering behavior. In this case by forcing bags to To be non-free (and not allowing stores to compete by advertising free bags) it incentivizes folks to start bringing their own bag. The revenue is inconsequential.

Except for all the new little fees and taxes are being used to pay off pension debt, etc. I’d complain less if my local taxes were better being used to serve the community rather than pay a 50 year olds pension that moved off to a state without income tax. A pension that was agreed to by the crooked pols that got elected by the same public unions they had to “negotiate” with.

I agree about steering behavior and I think it should be used more often rather than bans on things.

Pay a tax, or actually pay for the bag? The bag is not free. If previously they were being provided free, the cost of those bags was being folded into the cost of all the goods in the store.

All store goods using plastic in packaging should be heavily taxed.