Sacking one source of pollution

On February 8, 2008, The New York Times had a story which served as a good example of the message I wanted to get across in a recent post. It explained that Ireland has levied a relatively high price on the continued use of plastic bags at retail stores. If you want a plastic bag to carry your groceries (or whatever) in, you can still have it. But each bag will cost you roughly 33 cents. They haven't outlawed the bags... they've just made using them more painful than not using them.

So more people are carrying more durable, re-usable, cloth bags. The cloth bags, with much lower impact on the environment, now also have less of an impact on one's wallet than continuing to use plastic bags. Click on this link to read the full story (no-cost subscription required). If the story becomes unavailable to you, drop me a note and I'll get you a copy.

Again: It is a matter of stakes. When doing the wrong thing becomes more expensive than doing the right thing, the right things will prevail.

© 2008, 2009, Mike D. Anderson, Crystal, MN.

[Originally published 2/4/08.]