{"id":336,"date":"2010-06-24T18:14:18","date_gmt":"2010-06-24T22:14:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bulletinbag.mivamerchant.net\/blog\/?p=336"},"modified":"2025-05-29T13:05:12","modified_gmt":"2025-05-29T17:05:12","slug":"taxpayer-burden-of-plastic-bags","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bulletinbag.com\/blog\/taxpayer-burden-of-plastic-bags\/","title":{"rendered":"The Financial Burden of Single-use Plastic Bags"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>You\u2019ve read the staggering statistics on the <a title=\"Problem with Paper and Plastic Bags\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bulletinbag.com\/faqs\/problem-with-paper-and-plastic-bags.html\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener\">environmental ramifications of single-use plastic and paper bags<\/a>. But, have you stopped to consider how much those \u201cfree\u201d checkout bags actually cost you? Maybe you should. Plastic bags cost US consumers approximately $4 billion dollars in increased good costs per year. Stores typically pay 2 to 5 cents per plastic bag. Business aren\u2019t spending that money for shopper convenience\u2014they\u2019re burying that cost in the price of each product, adding up to as much as $18 per person, per year (ecovote.org).<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/plastic-bags1.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-337\" alt=\"plastic-bags1\" src=\"\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/plastic-bags1.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bulletinbag.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/plastic-bags1.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.bulletinbag.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/plastic-bags1-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a>An estimated 8 billion plastic bags enter the US waste stream per year, and worldwide over 200,000 plastic bags are dumped into landfills every HOUR (planetark.com). A typical landfill costs over $20 million to build and millions of dollars per year to maintain.\u00a0 Nearly all of this money comes from taxpayers\u2014over $750 million per year in California alone!<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Cities in California have estimated that the taxpayer cost to subsidize the recycling, collection, and disposal of plastic and paper bags amounts to as much as 17 cents per bag. Given that Californians use 19 billion plastic bags annually, this equates to approximately $3.23 billion or $88 per person per year to subsidize the cleanup and litter abatement of JUST plastic bags. These are taxpayer dollars that could otherwise be redirected to pay for much needed public services such as parks, libraries, and public safety (cawrecycles.org).<\/p>\n<p>Do your part. Choose to say \u201cno\u201d to plastic bags at checkout and bring your own <a title=\"Reusable Grocery Bags\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bulletinbag.com\/view-all-products-in-shop.html\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener\">reusable grocery bags<\/a> when you shop. <a title=\"Folding reusable bags\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bulletinbag.com\/fold-up-bags\/view-all-products.html\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener\">Folding reusable bags<\/a> are compact and can be stowed anywhere&#8211;so no more excuses!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You\u2019ve read the staggering statistics on the environmental ramifications of single-use plastic and paper bags. But, have you stopped to consider how much those \u201cfree\u201d checkout bags actually cost you? Maybe you should. Plastic bags cost US consumers approximately $4 billion dollars in increased good costs per year. Stores typically pay 2 to 5 cents [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[205,28],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Financial Burden of Single-use Plastic Bags - Bulletin Bag<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bulletinbag.com\/blog\/taxpayer-burden-of-plastic-bags\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Financial Burden of Single-use Plastic Bags - Bulletin Bag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"You\u2019ve read the staggering statistics on the environmental ramifications of single-use plastic and paper bags. But, have you stopped to consider how much those \u201cfree\u201d checkout bags actually cost you? Maybe you should. Plastic bags cost US consumers approximately $4 billion dollars in increased good costs per year. Stores typically pay 2 to 5 cents [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.bulletinbag.com\/blog\/taxpayer-burden-of-plastic-bags\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Bulletin Bag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-06-24T22:14:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-05-29T17:05:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Bulletin Bag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Bulletin Bag\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bulletinbag.com\/blog\/taxpayer-burden-of-plastic-bags\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.bulletinbag.com\/blog\/taxpayer-burden-of-plastic-bags\/\",\"name\":\"The Financial Burden of Single-use Plastic Bags - Bulletin Bag\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bulletinbag.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-06-24T22:14:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-05-29T17:05:12+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bulletinbag.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a9650fe391ce1793cab51fc3245a1d02\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.bulletinbag.com\/blog\/taxpayer-burden-of-plastic-bags\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bulletinbag.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.bulletinbag.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Bulletin Bag\",\"description\":\"Reusable Bag Blog and News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.bulletinbag.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bulletinbag.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a9650fe391ce1793cab51fc3245a1d02\",\"name\":\"Bulletin Bag\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.bulletinbag.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.bulletinbag.com\/blog\/author\/bag55\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Financial Burden of Single-use Plastic Bags - Bulletin Bag","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.bulletinbag.com\/blog\/taxpayer-burden-of-plastic-bags\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Financial Burden of Single-use Plastic Bags - Bulletin Bag","og_description":"You\u2019ve read the staggering statistics on the environmental ramifications of single-use plastic and paper bags. But, have you stopped to consider how much those \u201cfree\u201d checkout bags actually cost you? Maybe you should. Plastic bags cost US consumers approximately $4 billion dollars in increased good costs per year. Stores typically pay 2 to 5 cents [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.bulletinbag.com\/blog\/taxpayer-burden-of-plastic-bags\/","og_site_name":"Bulletin Bag","article_published_time":"2010-06-24T22:14:18+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-05-29T17:05:12+00:00","author":"Bulletin Bag","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Bulletin Bag","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.bulletinbag.com\/blog\/taxpayer-burden-of-plastic-bags\/","url":"https:\/\/www.bulletinbag.com\/blog\/taxpayer-burden-of-plastic-bags\/","name":"The Financial Burden of Single-use Plastic Bags - Bulletin Bag","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.bulletinbag.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-06-24T22:14:18+00:00","dateModified":"2025-05-29T17:05:12+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.bulletinbag.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a9650fe391ce1793cab51fc3245a1d02"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.bulletinbag.com\/blog\/taxpayer-burden-of-plastic-bags\/"]}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.bulletinbag.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.bulletinbag.com\/blog\/","name":"Bulletin Bag","description":"Reusable Bag Blog and News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.bulletinbag.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.bulletinbag.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a9650fe391ce1793cab51fc3245a1d02","name":"Bulletin Bag","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.bulletinbag.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.bulletinbag.com\/blog\/author\/bag55\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bulletinbag.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bulletinbag.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bulletinbag.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bulletinbag.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bulletinbag.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=336"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.bulletinbag.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5401,"href":"https:\/\/www.bulletinbag.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336\/revisions\/5401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bulletinbag.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bulletinbag.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bulletinbag.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}