Price over Prohibition: Making Plastic Bags Pay for Shoreline Cleanliness
A plastic bag in a beachgoer’s tote is ecologically harmless; it only becomes a problem when carelessly discarded. This behavior is encouraged because society has not assigned a cost to it. Shoreline pollution is more about the mismanagement of behavior than the materials themselves—litter increases when the public faces no immediate consequences for throwing away plastic. However, if a visible fee were attached to the bag that accounted for cleanup costs, users would be more responsible, and beaches would remain clean without constant oversight.