LINCOLN SQUARE — Chicago's 7-cent tax on disposable plastic and paper checkout bags is now in effect, but unlike other taxes, it's completely avoidable — just BYOB.
Left home this morning without one? No problem — a couple of large retailers and the City of Chicago are handing out free reusable bags to ease the pain.
Here's where to get one:
• Target will provide a free reusable bag to the first 200 customers at each of its 16 Chicago stores.
• Whole Foods will hand out free bags to the first 1,000 customers at each of its 12 Chicago stores.
• City officials will also hand out free reusable "ChiBags" on Wednesday at seven CTA stations during the evening commute: 95th Street Red Line, Roosevelt Green/Orange/Red, Belmont Red/Brown/Purple, Logan Square Blue Line, Ashland/63rd Green Line, Kimball Brown Line and Pulaski Orange Line.
RELATED: Bag Tax Surprise: It's For ALL Retail Bags, Plastic AND Paper
The tax, approved by City Council in November, applies to retailers of all sizes — from Mom & Pops to global conglomerates — in all sectors, from groceries to clothing to tchotchkes.
This means shoppers need to either bring their own totes to stores, or pay the 7-cent tax per bag. Five of those cents will wind up in the city's coffers, while the retailer will retain the remainder. (Plastic grocery-style bags wholesale for fewer than two cents; paper bags favored by boutiques wholesale for upward of 15 cents, according to shopkeepers).
The paper and plastic bag tax replaces a plastic bag ban that went into effect in 2015 and was repealed in favor of the tax in fall 2016.
"What we've seen is that bans alone do not work. When you ban one type of bag ... people just move to whatever bag is free," said Jordan Parker, founder of the advocacy group Bring Your Bag Chicago. "The real problem is giving away bags for free."
According to Parker, the ideal bag is one that can survive up to 300 to 400 uses and is also preferably washable and collapsible for easy transport.
