Practice 4 • Fee for Single-Use Plastic Bags
Your professor is teaching a course on environmental policy.
In your response, you should do the following:
- Express and support your opinion.
- Make a contribution to the discussion in your own words.
- An effective response will contain at least 100 words.
Professor Delgado
Many cities have introduced a small fee for single-use plastic bags at grocery stores in an effort to reduce plastic waste. Supporters argue that even a small fee encourages people to bring reusable bags, while critics argue that the fee unfairly burdens low-income shoppers who cannot always plan ahead. Should cities charge a fee for single-use plastic bags to reduce plastic waste? Why do you think so?
Aiden
I think cities should charge the fee. Even a small cost changes people's habits, since nobody wants to keep paying extra money every time they shop. Cities that have introduced similar fees have seen major drops in plastic bag usage within just a year or two, which shows that the policy actually works.
Grace
I disagree. A flat fee affects everyone the same way, regardless of income, which makes it harder for people who are already struggling financially to cover other expenses. Instead, cities should focus on providing free reusable bags to low-income families and investing in better recycling programs rather than simply charging shoppers extra money at checkout.
Nothing is uploaded — this downloads your response as a .txt file to your computer.