Proposal Argument///Maryland Should Institute a 5-cent Tax on Plastic Bags - Essay Example

Among these supporting incidents, are also voices against it, like it was of no use to levy taxes on plastic bags. Yet, after going through the facts which are stated below and taking the same into consideration, very little doubt will remain as to why it should not be implemented. Plastic bags are creating big environmental problems. Plastic bags litter the landscape, clog waterways and endanger wildlife. They take hundreds of years to decompose and recycling is also low. United States uses 100 billion out of the 1 trillion or more of the plastic bags which are used worldwide (“Plastic Grocery bags” 1).

There can be no doubt that out of this 100 billion of yearly usage a considerable portion goes to Maryland. Millions of tons of plastic bags trash and pollute the oceans from the poles to the equator. According to United Nations Environment Programme, there are 46000 plastic bags floating every square mile of the ocean (Madsen and Ritchie 8). These Plastic trashes harm the ocean ecosystems. It has been found that more than 260 marine species have been found with plastic in their stomach or tangled around their bodies.

This interferes with their feeding, movement and reproduction and sometimes causes injury and death (Madsen and Ritchie 9). It is evident from the facts which are mentioned above that plastic bags do cause lots of harm to the environment. What can be done about it in Maryland? A complete ban of the plastic will completely get rid of the problem. If such a means is available, Why not completely ban plastic bags? In such a case what’s the use of levying taxes of five cent on plastic bags? Plastic bags have a utility, which cannot be provided by any other alternative.

An option of Paper bags has lots of disadvantages despite the fact that it is easily degradable1. Plastic bags are lightweight and carry heavy loads without breaking. These bags can be recycled to produce building materials and plastic bags (“Plastic Grocery Bags” 2). Moreover they are cheap and widely used. These facts suggest that banning plastic bags will not be a good alternative. What we need to do is to reduce the use of plastic bags and give more efforts on recycling the plastic bags.

One of the best ways of reducing the use of plastic bags without getting rid of it totally is to levy a tax on its usage. This is going to bar the consumers from using plastic bags and force them to use another alternative. In this manner the environmental harm to Maryland due to plastic will reduce considerably. The government’s going to earn a huge amount of revenue by levying taxes on the plastic bags. If each bag adds 5 cents to the treasury of US, 10,000,000 bags going to generate 500,000$ in revenue, which is a big amount.

It can be used for recycling or for some other purposes which is going to benefit the community. There are many things which appear that it’s going to happen when taxes are levied on bags on Maryland but how can we say that it’s going to work? There is evidentiary support which shows that levying taxes has done its job nicely where it was adopted. In Washington DC, after one month of a similar fee, the demand for plastic bags dropped as much as 80%. Volunteers in DC had reported that there is a significant drop in bags collected at a recent river.

Businesses report about cost saving and cleaner property. Carryout bag use has declined by 90 percent since Ireland’