A movie screening Thursday encourages residents to support a tax measure that could reduce Evanston’s carbon footprint. Under the tax, shoppers could find themselves paying more – unless they bring their own bags.
In September, Ald. Coleen Burrus (9th) put forth a proposal for a plastic bag tax that would charge shoppers 25 cents for each disposable plastic bag they receive from stores. The government would use the money earned toward environmental efforts, such as providing underprivileged people with reusable shopping bags, said Nancy Bruski, a member of Citizens for a Greener Evanston and the Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation.
Burrus, who could not be reached for comment, has since pulled the proposal, postponing its decision indefinitely. She tabled the issue per the request of CGE and the JRC, who not only wanted the tax to be lower, but also wanted to drum up support for the environmentally conscious tax, Bruski said.
In order to counteract the negative comments about the bag tax, the two organizations are co-sponsoring a screening of the documentary film “Bag It.” A group of JRC members first saw the movie at the Mountainfilm Festival in Telluride, Colo., a socially conscious festival. They decided to bring it to Evanston for a screening to show their community the environmental dangers of plastic bags.
The film is playing Thursday at 7 p.m. at the JCR Synagogue, 303 Dodge Ave.
Bruski first saw the movie at the festival, and has been working to promote the positive side of a plastic bag tax ever since.
“I think that if it’s presented in the right way, I think many Evanstonians will be supportive,” Bruski said.
Other cities have started taxes like this that have been successful, Bruski said. For example, in January, Washington, D.C., started imposing a 5-cent fee on all disposable bags – paper and plastic. The fee is already reducing bag use, and the government is using the money to clean up the nearby Anacostia River, Bruski said.
“Hopefully showing the film will start a conversation,” said Michael Drennan, a CGE member. “We do hope to have follow-up screenings in the next few months and continue developing that awareness.”
Still, some Evanston citizens, like Vito Brugliera, McCormick ’55, think the city needs to reconsider the tax altogether.
“To really make the ban effective you’d have to have a high tax,” Brugliera said. “But that means if you don’t bring your Whole Foods bag with you and you’re trying to feed your family, you’re going to leave with four to five bags. That’s a pretty steep add-on to someone’s grocery bill.”
Brugliera said people will shop in nearby cities such as Skokie and Wilmette, where there is no tax on plastic bags.
“These issues are not black and white; you really need to think about them,” he said. “There is a wall of unintended consequences.”
