San Francisco is considering making a change that will affect most shoppers in the city: they're talking about instituting a ban on the use of plastic grocery bags. Lawmakers are blaming the bags for everything from "littering streets and choking wildlife" to playing a major part in global warming. The expect that such a change will save the city millions of dollars, although taxpayers may have an increased out-of-pocket expense for reusable canvas (or other materials) shopping bags and alternative plastic bags that would serve the functions that reused grocery bags often do now (lining small trash bins, picking up after dogs, etc.).
San Francisco is not the first city to consider such legislation. Plastic bags are either taxed or not used in parts of South Africa, Ireland and Taiwan. Bangladesh has banned them and Zanzibar, Rwanda and Paris are also considering a ban. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors will vote on the measure next week and, if passed, it will take effect in six months.
A fraking amazing Battlestar Galactica cake
Iced Tea 101
Pierogies + cheese + onions + kraut = Parmageddon!
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
3-09-2007 @ 12:41PM
calamari said...
Chalk up another reason I no longer live in San Francisco. The city has serious problems with a large homeless population, a high murder rate (particularly black-on-black shootings), housing that has priced out the middle class, decreasing jobs outside tourist industries, dysfunctional mass transit, and a decaying infrastructure where power and water outages are routine... and the supervisors are worried about banning plastic grocery bags. How heroic of them.
Reply
3-09-2007 @ 2:11PM
Jeff said...
Reminds me of the time I was grocery shopping with my father in a small southern town.
The clerk said to him "paper or plastic" and he immediately replied "it doesn't matter, I'm bi-sackual". You should of saw the look of shock on her face.
Reply
3-09-2007 @ 4:06PM
Adriane said...
Meh..gotta start somewhere I guess. I heard through the grapvine that Ikea is soon going to start charging 5 cents a plastic bag that you use.
Reply
3-09-2007 @ 7:38PM
Danny Cohen said...
I think the IKEA date is March 15 for charging for bags.
Reply
3-10-2007 @ 12:08AM
Robyn said...
Jeff: Too funny! I'm totally gonna use that line.
I'm also not sure if paper is necessarily better than plastic. I googled "paper plastic better" and found a bunch of sites debating it.
Reply
3-10-2007 @ 12:40PM
LeisureGuy said...
Cool idea. I just recently bought a $0.99 reusable canvas bag at Whole Foods, and the biggest surprise for me is that it's much MORE convenient than disposable grocery bags: holds more, easier to carry, no danger of ripping, and when I get home I don't have a handful of disposable bags to save, or recycle, or throw out. I just fold up the canvas bag and put by the door to take the next time I shop. Plus I get $0.05 off each time I use it.
Reply
3-10-2007 @ 3:25PM
Random said...
I like to use the canvas tote I bought at my local grocery store too. It's made with the same dimensions as a standard paper bag, including a rectangular bottom. You can load it all the way to the top and still comfortably carry it hanging off a shoulder.
I try to keep at least one in the car at all times, since most of my midweek grocery store runs tend to be spur of the moment, but I tend to forget.
Reply
3-12-2007 @ 10:05AM
Jon said...
Banning plastic bags grocery is ridiculous.
Last year, I started using canvas and reusable plastic bags (from Trader Joe's) for groceries. They're a huge improvement, for the reasons that others already posted. Plastic bags can be recycled, but it's better to reuse than recycle.
However, I still use plastic grocery bags in my smaller garbage cans. I prefer that meat be wrapped in a plastic bag, in case it leaks. And occasionally I'll forget my reusable bags, or buy more than will fit in my reusable bag. When that happens in SF, what are people expected to do? Buy more reusable bags? Carry their groceries in their arms?
The reasonable solution is to add a surcharge for plastic bags. 5 or 10 cents per bag isn't too much to pay occasionally, but it adds up quickly enough that it will cause most people to buy reusable bags. Considering the existence of this easy and fair solution, banning plastic bags just doesn't make sense.
Reply
3-12-2007 @ 10:10AM
Liz Newcomb said...
I agree that throwing away plastic bags is never a good idea, but I'm not sure that banning them completely is the way to go either. We have a large dog and he, uh, creates large deposits at least 2-3 times per day, and each necessitates its own bag. If we weren't able to collect said bags during our grocery trips, etc. we'd have to go buy them. I wouldn't want to try to pick up dog poop with a paper bag!
Reply
3-12-2007 @ 3:54PM
Adriane said...
Charging for bags, to me, is definitely a step in the right direction...Although I wonder how much it would reduce usage? I feel like people will just absorb the cost and use bags just as frequently as when they *weren't* paying.
Also- partially in response to Jon- I wonder if they'll keep those plastic bags for fruits and meat?
Reply
3-13-2007 @ 9:40AM
Jon said...
I think they'd have to keep plastic bags for fruits and vegetables. When you're buying loose potatoes or green beans or whatever, you have to put them in something.
It occurs to me that I may have overreacted. The article doesn't say that they're banning paper bags. So if you forget your reusable bags, you could use paper. I'd still rather see them charge for plastic than give away free paper.
Reply
3-13-2007 @ 5:27PM
Adriane said...
Still giving away free paper bags- really? That seems slightly counter productive, doesn't it?
Reply