Poll: Would Paying for Plastic Bags Make You Use Them Less?

Editor's note: This is an issue I've been thinking about since Earth Day. Please indulge me and let me know your thoughts! 

Five cents per bag. That's how much you're charged for a plastic or paper bag in Washington, D.C.

According to this USA Today article, it's a practice D.C. put in place last year. Plastic bags were a major form of pollution in the Anacostia River, so the city employed the slogan, "Skip the Bag, Save the River."  Reusable bags were handed out to encourage shoppers to stop using single-use bags.

Last year, I spent three months living in Washington, D.C. and paid 5 cents per bag several times. 

When making small purchases, just the option of whether to use a bag or not made me think. Because of this policy, I don't grab a plastic bag with my Pop Tarts in the self-checkout line in Jewel. I tell check-out clerks to save the bag when I buy a DVD or anything else I can easily carry out or stick in my purse. 

I haven't started using a reusable bag yet for groceries, though I do reuse plastic bags when I do get them. 

According to the article, San Francisco banned the use of single-use bags in large pharmacies and supermarkets, and North Carolina approved a bill to ban single-use plastic and non-recyclable bags in the Outer Banks counties of Hyde, Currituck and Dare last September. 

Would you support a similar effort in Illinois? Do you think the tax would encourage people to use fewer bags? Or is taxing the use of single-use bags going too far?