It was a beautiful day for a ballgame on Monday at Nationals Park. President Obama threw out the first ball (to cheers), temperatures climbed close to 80 degrees, the game was a sellout and the ballpark overlooking Washington D.C.'s other river -- the Anacostia -- never looked better.
Here's the view from my perch in the upper deck.
About that river: The Anacostia River flows for about eight miles from Prince George's County, Maryland, into your nation's capital, where it empties into the Potomac. It has a troubled past and a bright future, as I learned recently on a boat trip along the Anacostia organized by my synagogue, Adat Shalom Reconstructionist Congregation, and led by our eco-friendly rabbi, Fred Dobb.
Jim Foster, the president of the Anacostia Watershed Society, told us that dumping of raw sewage, along with industrial waste from the Washington Navy Yard, had turned the Anacostia into one of America's most polluted waterways by the late 1980s. Not coincidentally, the Anacostia runs through Washington's poorest neighborhoods. Today, things are looking up. Driving the improvement are tougher pollution laws, increased awareness of the river's value, riverfront development spurred by the new Nationals Park and, most recently, a law regulating plastic 
Plastic bags are a blight on the river. A
trash survey by the city's Department of the Environment
found that, depending on whether the garbage was collected at storm drains, streams or nearby surface sites, between 19 and 33 percent of the waste entering the Anacostia was plastic bags. About 20,000 tons of waste enter the river each year.
Last June, in an effort to protect the Anacostia and its tributaries, the D.C. City Council unanimously passed a five-cent tax on plastic and paper bags to discourage their use. Money collected under the bill will go to clean up the river.
How is the bag tax working out? Brilliantly, so far. In January, the month the bill took effect, people dramatically scaled back their use of plastic bags. According to The Washington Post:
In its first assessment of how the new law is working, the D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue estimates that city food and grocery establishments issued about 3.3 million bags in January, which suggests a remarkable decrease. Prior to the bag tax taking effect Jan 1, the Office of the Chief Financial Officer had estimated that about 22.5 million bags were being issued per month in 2009.
Yes, that's right: The city's stores report that they gave out 85 percent fewer disposable bags the first month the law took effect.
Rebates vs. taxes
The two grocery chains I shop at (Whole Foods & Giant Eagle) both give a 5 cent bag refund for those who use their own bag. Target may do this too, I forget. Anyway, it's basically the same incentive for the consumer, but I don't think they publicize it enough. I only found out because I looked over my itemized receipt one day. Not sure if other chains around the country do this, but in an area where a bag tax probably wouldn't pass, it's a great step from companies that care.
@clivejones: While plastic does take longer to decompose than paper, the lifecycle energy to make paper bags is higher, including recycling (most plastic bags can be recycled, depending on your local haulers). The problem with banning bags, as has been shown in a few locations around the US in the last couple years, is that people don't like being told they can't do something. Incentives work better in situations like these.
plastic bags
would 'nt it be possible i know it may sound daft to ban all plastic bags.We know it takes years for them to erode not like paper than can be recycled.The idea came from watching american movies they go into a shop come out with there purchases in brown paper bags.could'nt it be made law that plasti bag are banned.
In Favor
This is such a great idea! I take my reusable bags when I remember them, but if there was a tax I know I would be a bit more vigilant. I love how the money goes to cleaning up the river to. That is the way it should be. If we all can't be bothered to change our lifestyles slightly to help the environment, we should have to pay for the damage we cause.