In an effort to cut down on waste, many countries and U.S. cities have banned plastic bags at grocery stores. It didn't go exactly as planned.

Please listen to "Are Plastic Bag Bans Garbage?" podcast at https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2019/04/09/711181385/are-plastic-bag-bans-garbage.

If a city imposed say a 5-cent tax on plastic shopping bags instead of banning them, how does this change the incentives of consumers? How will their behavior change?

Imagine you have to evaluate five policy options: 1. ban plastic grocery bags, 2. tax plastic grocery bags, 3. ban plastic grocery bags *and* tax paper bags, 4. tax both plastic *and* paper bags, or 5. Do nothing.

Which one do you think would actually reduce pollution/carbon emissions? Why or why not? Can you think of any unintended consequences for the policy you selected?