OK, so I was wrong on the plastic bag tax
Regular readers will know that I have been somewhat dismissive of the plastic bag tax (to put it mildly…) Well, hands up, I was wrong.
Ish.
My case was that plastic bags are such a tiny part of our carbon footprint, that the regulatory effort to tax plastic bags would be better spent, say, requiring higher insulation standards. But two things have happened since the plastic bag tax was introduced in the UK.
- Increased understanding of the scale of the problem of ocean plastics, particularly the feedback loops that mean plastic fragments are now being found in drinking water. The issue is much more critical than (almost) everybody thought.
- Rather than being a token gesture, the plastic bag tax has opened up the political path to further action on all single-use plastics (and arguably other eco-actions) as promoted by the unlikely green champions Michael Gove and Philip Hammond in recent weeks.
The latter is a really difficult one to predict. I get regular complaints from industry contacts that their organisation’s leadership likes to have a green project or two to wheel out periodically to show they are doing something before they are put back in the cupboard and life goes on as before.
On the other hand, as with the plastic bag tax, a relatively minor achievement can lead to a snowballing effect. It’s the same with employee engagement for Sustainability – getting people involved through ‘quick wins’ can help open minds to more radical change. But the leadership must be there to keep rolling the snowball down the hill every time the natural momentum stalls.
The difference then, as always in Sustainability, is leadership.