Comments on: Tax me, baby!

By: Eric Karjaluoto

Eric Karjaluoto — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 19:35:21 +0000

Hi JayN,

Why not do both? :-)

Cheers!

Eric

By: JayN

JayN — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 19:27:50 +0000

Just one point, design should be positive, can we try and stay clear of approaches which rely on banning, taxing and regulating things?

We should look to design solutions that are environmentally friendly but BETTER than existing ones, that way genuine demand can be stimulated, individuals can make positive choices all without punitive tax or legislative coersion. We don't have to go back to the stone age, just pay attention to the consequences and design with longevity, environmental impact and as ever purpose in mind.

Just imagine, through good design you could lead a whole industry to better environmental performance and they'd do it willingly, at their own expense, to maintain market share and stay competitive.

By: scottyo

scottyo — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 14:36:01 +0000

Last year, a tiny town in Northern Manitoba decided to outlaw plastic shopping bags all together. See: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/manitoba/story/2007/04/02/manitoba-bags.html

Where our family shops, at a local Co-Operative, we have to pay a fee if we forget our re-usable cloth bags.

A couple of small places trying to make change. Which in the long run is how everything changes.

For the bigger picture, I think high energy prices will eventually force everyone (consumers and producers) to rethink where they buy there "stuff" and where they come from.

This whole Globalization concept is better utilized when the transfer of ideas are the only thing shipped. A good idea in one part of the world can be implemented in another part of the world using local resources and people as much as possible.

We just have to think more critically about our lives and look beyond things just being business. I also think that we need to look deeply into indingenous perspectives beyond the colloquial tranquil native that is one with nature. There are solutions beyond that generalization. When societies have learned to live with the land rather than on it for thousands of years and ours has almost decimated it in less than 200, that is saying something about us, capitalism and about how disconnected we are from realizing how unique life is out here on this speck of dust.

It's time for another Renaissance and think one is starting.

Cheers!

By: Lukas

Lukas — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 17:44:48 +0000

Very nice approaches, Eric. I agree to about 100%.
1 thing to JamieO:

"The ideas you present sound great on the surface, but don't you think the companies would find some loophole to pass that cost on to the consumer through "recycling fees" or a more PC way to say it."

It seems to me like your thought is not finished yet and so I'd like to continue the thing:
The point is to make companies (lets stay on car-producers) produce more environment-friendly cars. Imaginating they have to have to pay for the disposing and try to get the costs to the customer: What do you think where the cars would be bought? At "Pete's" where you have to pay the "disposing-fee" and the cars are not environment-friendly OR at "Maxx's" where the costs of recycling are much lower and as a reason of this you even help your environment?
Just thought this should not be forgotten.

Ah yeah, and please forgive me if my english is not so good - I'm from Austria.

By: Stephen McNally

Stephen McNally — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 16:49:31 +0000

The plastic bag levy (22c per bag, not so much a tax) here in Ireland has been immensely successful. The retailers aren't suffering either and quickly began selling 'bags for life', generally cheap cloth or canvas bags, that they sell at a tidy profit and that their customers can use again the next time.

By: Jeremy Latham

Jeremy Latham — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 15:50:35 +0000

What about the stupid plastic packaging on every small electronic item? You know, the kind that is impossible to open!

Great post!

By: Bridget

Bridget — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 15:35:35 +0000

Hello Eric,

First of all, I enjoy reading your blog. Thanks for putting out some very articulate essays, it has certainly helped me personally as a young designer.

Now for my shameless plug...
We, Kaleidoscope, a product design consultancy based in Cincinnati, OH (with offices in New York, & Detroit.) Have been working on a project we call the Greener Grass. Please check out our blog, based on your essay above I think you'll dig it. Comments are encouraged!

http://www.thegreenergrass.org/

Thanks,
Bridget

By: Eric Karjaluoto

Eric Karjaluoto — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 13:34:46 +0000

Hi Steven,

Yes, I too am a fan of Cradle to Cradle--it's an excellent book! I think that it's the book that really connected things for me. It was exciting to find such a systemic proposition to address the problem we face.

As for plastic bags, I reference these to illustrate just how slow we are to move. You'd think that with all of the talk of climate change in the media these days, at very least we'd have curbed our dependence on items such as these. Instead, most shop keepers look at me with a perplexed expression when I tell them that I'd rather carry the item in my hands than collect another bag. Why is this taking so long?

Jamie, I understand your argument regarding the need to simply reduce our consumption, instead of trying to be "more green". I wholeheartedly agree. At the same time, this isn't as easy as one might hope.

I recently read an article in the Economist (I can't quite remember its title), in which the reporter made note of a new site, which helps people meet their goals. They do so by charging people if they don’t meet their own voluntarily elected, pre-defined goals. Allow me to clarify.

The founders cited research that illustrated how difficult it is for people to reconcile their long-term goals with their short-term appetites. The reason for this was found to be not related to a lack of understanding; a smoker for example fully understood that his habit might kill him. Instead, it related to the challenge in seeing that issue as important as his immediate desire, given what I might best describe as our short attention span.

So, while I agree that we have to create systems that reduce our waste (as we're trying to do at http://www.designcanchange.org), and also become less consumption-focused. I also think that we have to build in mechanisms that make it less pleasurable to consume in the short-term.

As of late, I've found myself frustrated by the lack of choices that I have as a buyer of goods. Increasingly I'm looking at the things I buy as a burden. While at one time I just wanted something shiny and new, now I find a conflict between that and the eventual requirement to dispose of this purchase.

I wrote this article, as I believe that taxation is often a punitive device, and I can't see any better place for it than this.

Just think of how powerful this obstacle could prove if we applied it just to trash. Could we start to charge people for the amount of garbage they create? For example, each bag we leave at the curb could cost us $20. In my mind this could prove a powerful personal motivator to limit one's generation of waste. And this moves upstream. We'd start demanding that manufacturers generated better options, smarter packaging, and better recycling programs.

It's a complex problem, and I believe we have to attack it from as many angles as possible.

Cheers!

Eric

By: Ben Reimers

Ben Reimers — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 09:02:58 +0000

JamieO is pretty much right: any money it costs them to become "sustainable" will just be passed on to the consumer anyway, as would any taxes. Which is pretty much why business will only appear to be "sustainable" -- they can charge more, and therefore make more money, by advertising the fact that they're "Green" to people who want to feel good about the decisions they make. But most companies only really care about the bottom line ... and by that I mean THEIR bottom line.

But it kinda misses the point: if you want to be kind to the environment, you have to consume less of everything, not consume more "Green" product.

By: nortypig » Blog Archive » Tax Me Baby!

nortypig » Blog Archive » Tax Me Baby! — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 07:32:16 +0000

[...] well written suggestion about taxing plastic bags reminds me of a book I reviewed recently - Cradle to Cradle. We need to start seeing this as a [...]