Irish bag tax keeps going up & pushes use of other plastic bags

Hilex Poly

Hilex Poly is rolling out a campaign to explain why it’s important to say no to bans and taxes on your grocery bags. The campaign has introduced their first infographic, the first in a series, that explains the negative effects of plastic bag bans and taxes on U.S. jobs and the economy.

The campaign will explain how bag bans and taxes are hurting economies, increasing costs and inconveniencing consumers throughout the world.

The first infographic shows how Ireland’s bag tax started at $0.15 in 2002 and jumped to $0.22 by 2007. It also shows that the bag tax in Ireland increased the sale of other plastic bags, like garbage bags, by 400%.

Bag the Ban is a project of Hilex Poly, a manufacturer of recycled bags, films and related products. A US-based company with more than 1,250 US employees, Hilex is also an environmental innovator—they created the world’s largest closed loop plastic bag recycling plant, which recycled more than 20 million pounds of post-consumer bags and films in 2010 alone. Hilex is also a participant and endorser of the EPA’s WasteWise Program.