The Most Effective Tax Ever in DC

by Elias Shams
The 5 cent tax on plastic bags in Washington DC that instated in January of this year is one of the first of its kind in the nation. It is designed to change consumer behavior and limit pollution in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Well, it has already proven to have an awesome impact:

The Anacostia River watershed, shown on the right-hand side of the map above, is 176 square miles in area and covers two counties in Maryland and a portion of the east side of the District of Columbia.

a) According to the district’s Office of Tax and Revenue, DC government collected about $150,0000 in January from it which will be used to clean up the Anacostia River.

b) The number of plastic bags handed out by supermarkets and other establishments dropped from 22 million to 3 Million in that month.

Wow! This means we used only about 3 million disposable bags in January. read more…