Submission to Tasman District Council Annual Plan

Golden Bay Bag Ladies' Submission to Tasman District Council Annual Plan

June 13^th 2005.

The Golden Bay Bag Ladies are thankful for the support of the TDC in the campaign for Golden Bay to be Plastic Shopping Bag-Free - the FIRST community and council district in New Zealand to do so.
We applaud the Council's progress on community recycling and zero waste, and we would urge continued adherence to the "user pays" policy.
We propose that the TDC set in place the necessary by-laws to impose a 25 cents levy/tax on plastic shopping bags in Golden Bay, with the funds collected from Golden Bay retailers/businesses to be directed to Bay environmental projects.
In addition to the cleaner environment, less use of landfill and less wasteful use of resources, the positive benefits of this Plas-tax would be:
- Enhanced image and appeal of Golden Bay and increased tourism and business
- Increased public awareness and education of the plastic bag issues
- Increased personal responsibility and action to combat waste
- Significant positive national and international media attention for the Bay + TDC
- Financial support for environmental projects for the Bay
This move would be following the highly successful 2002 Irish plastic bag tax which reduced usage of plastic shopping bags by over 90%.and collected revenues for important environmental projects.
Golden Bay uses an estimated 1 million new plastic shopping bags p.a. The likely annual impact of the tax would be to reduce this by 90% to only 100,000 and collect $25,000 for environmental projects from the least environmentally active people.
Our environment is precious.
By acting differently and conscientiously NOW; by encouraging each of us to be and act more responsibly about what we use and how we dispose of it, then we CAN change the environmental things that are going wrong and we can be proud to be able to leave a positive environmental legacy to the generations to come.
Golden Bay Bag Ladies,