An experience during a local trip last summer to a section meeting of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) in Schenectady, New York got me thinking that there must be a better way for my community – New York's Capital Region - to handle those ubiquitous plastic shopping bags so many of us use, once they've served their initial purpose.
Round, Round Get Around
As I was ending an after-work trip from Troy, my 2004 Honda Civic, which I maintain in good condition, was producing the signature plastic burning smell many of us are familiar with, apparently emanating from my engine compartment.
Photo at right and other photos courtesy Wikipedia. -->
Once in Schenectady, I pulled into the parking lot of a convenience store near to the Applebee's restaurant where our meeting was scheduled, to inspect the problem, assuming one of my engine compartment plastic components had come loose during the 40-minute trip from Troy.
Popping the hood and looking down from a top view, I could see no foreign object in the engine compartment. I then looked underneath the front of the car, and there before my eyes was the culprit - a beige shopping bag from one of the local supermarkets, connected like a barnacle to my exhaust system! The burning was all the more intense due to both the long ride from Troy and from the strong summer heat.
Ooh, That Smell!
Luckily I was able to dislodge the bag, and make my meeting on time, without any serious damage to my car and with only a small volume of carcinogens inhaled during the "while stuck" and "residual burn" time segments.
However, during the same two-month period of time last summer, I encountered another "libertine" shopping bag, on another local area highway – Interstate 787 - while car pooling in a colleague's similar-make Honda Civic. A rogue plastic bag once again lodged itself - to the bottom of my colleague's car this time. However, after traveling a half mile or so, it became un-stuck on its own accord without causing damage.
Murphy's Law operates in Upstate, New York
I've been driving the roads of New York's Capital Region since the late 1980's, and can't recall acquiring so many hitch-hiking plastic bags within such a short span of time.

As you know, the bags are designed to be very strong, to handle sharp edges from milk containers and the like. This same material property I benefit from as I haul my groceries into my home also makes them potentially very dangerous to a car's exhaust system, as the bag handles can hook - with a little "luck" - and pull with good strength.
Obviously, for the commuting public, not a good thing when someone's muffler falls onto the center of the highway – and I've seen many of these artifacts on the local roads over the years - never really knowing what the true cause of the muffler fall-off was – rust is always suspected, but maybe there are other factors, too?
A Modest Proposal?
So as we approach summer and peak driving season, and with St. Patrick's Day just passing yesterday, I'm thinking back to a BBC report from '02 that announced Ireland had faced this problem head on:

According to a 2002 BBC News web site article, a 0.15 Euro - approximately 33-cents in U.S. currency - tax was levied on Irish shoppers starting March 4th, 2002, for each bag used. The person leading this effort was Irish Environmental Minister Noel Dempsey, and the tax was part of a larger push to "reduce the visibility of plastic waste". He said the new tax was designed to "dramatically reduce the nuisance" resulting from "our insatiable use of free plastic bags".
Seven years later, is the Emerald Isle any greener?
To follow-up on Ireland's success or failure, I fast-forwarded to an article posted last month -
According to blogger Jennifer Lee at the New York Times, just a few weeks after Ireland imposed its 33-cent tax on plastic bags, usage decreased by 94%. Not bad, if that statistic held over time.

Ms. Lee's article also described a current push in New York City by the mayor to introduce a 5-cent tax on plastic bags. This is happening while an already voter-approved, state-wide effort is occurring across the New York State border – half an hour or so driving from Troy – over in Massachusetts.
So how to solve the overpopulation problem of these bags on Capital Region highways, green-spaces, and many other places they shouldn't be? Should they be boiled in a pot and eaten to solve the problem, as Jonathan Swift might suggest?
Time will tell, but it seems likely that the tide of floating plastic bags sailing along New York's roadways may soon be coming to ebb.
- Larry Kelley
Resources:
2002: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1853305.stm
2009: http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/02/taxing-plastic-bags-from-pennies-here-to-millions-there/
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