A way to reduce plastic bag usage by about 94% in a few weeks

I just came across an article about another article from the New York Times about a way Ireland reduced plastic grocery bag use by about 94% in only a matter of weeks!

So what was this method? Simple really, a 33 cent tax PER BAG plus a little advertising.

More interesting, there was a mindset shift as “carrying [plastic bags] became socially unacceptable — on a par with wearing a fur coat or not cleaning up after one’s dog.”

Click here to view the New York Times article.

Below is a couple of paragraphs from the above article:

"In 2002, Ireland passed a tax on plastic bags; customers who want them must now pay 33 cents per bag at the register. There was an advertising awareness campaign. And then something happened that was bigger than the sum of these parts. Within weeks, plastic bag use dropped 94 percent. Within a year, nearly everyone had bought reusable cloth bags, keeping them in offices and in the backs of cars. Plastic bags were not outlawed, but carrying them became socially unacceptable — on a par with wearing a fur coat or not cleaning up after one’s dog."