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 Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2007 7:58 pm
Original article at: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/03/28/MNGDROT5QN1.DTL
S.F. FIRST CITY TO BAN PLASTIC SHOPPING BAGS
Supermarkets and chain pharmacies will have to use recyclable or compostable sacks
Charlie Goodyear, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Paper or plastic? Not anymore in San Francisco.
The city's Board of Supervisors approved groundbreaking legislation Tuesday to outlaw plastic checkout bags at large supermarkets in about six months and large chain pharmacies in about a year.
The ordinance, sponsored by Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, is the first such law in any city in the United States and has been drawing global scrutiny this week.
"I am astounded and surprised by the worldwide attention," Mirkarimi said. "Hopefully, other cities and other states will follow suit."
Fifty years ago, plastic bags -- starting first with the sandwich bag -- were seen in the United States as a more sanitary and environmentally friendly alternative to the deforesting paper bag. Now an estimated 180 million plastic bags are distributed to shoppers each year in San Francisco. Made of filmy plastic, they are hard to recycle and easily blow into trees and waterways, where they are blamed for killing marine life. They also occupy much-needed landfill space.
Two years ago, San Francisco officials considered imposing a 17-cent tax on petroleum-based plastic bags before reaching a deal with the California Grocers Association. The agreement called for large supermarkets to reduce by 10 million the number of bags given to shoppers in 2006. The grocers association said it cut back by 7.6 million, but city officials called that figure unreliable and unverifiable because of poor data supplied by markets.
The dispute led to a renewed interest in outlawing the standard plastic bag, which Mirkarimi said Tuesday was a "relic of the past." Under the legislation, which passed 10-1 in the first of two votes, large markets and pharmacies will have the option of using compostable bags made of corn starch or bags made of recyclable paper. San Francisco will join a number of countries, such as Ireland, that already have outlawed plastic bags or have levied a tax on them. Final passage of the legislation is expected at the board's next scheduled meeting, and the mayor is expected to sign it.
The grocers association has warned that the new law will lead to higher prices for San Francisco shoppers.
"We're disappointed that the Board of Supervisors is going down this path," said Kristin Power, the association's vice president for government relations. "It will frustrate recycling efforts and will increase both consumer and retailer costs. There's also a real concern about the availability and quality of compostable bags."
Power said most of the group's members operating in San Francisco are likely to switch to paper bags "simply because of the affordability and availability issues."
Mirkarimi's legislation is one in a string of environmentally sensitive measures -- such as outlawing Styrofoam food containers and encouraging clean-fuel construction vehicles at city job sites -- adopted by the city in recent months.
"It's really exciting," Jared Blumenfeld, director of the city's Department of the Environment, said after the vote on Tuesday. "We're thrilled. It's been a long time in the making."
Blumenfeld said it takes 430,000 gallons of oil to manufacture 100 million bags. Compostable bags can be recycled in the city's green garbage bins and will make it more convenient for residents to recycle food scraps, he said.
Recycling of paper bags also is far more active today than it was when the plastic bag was first introduced to U.S. consumers.
The lone dissenting voice in the board chamber on Tuesday was Supervisor Ed Jew, who noted that 95,000 small businesses in San Francisco will continue to use plastic bags. Jew, who in his third month in office has taken to critiquing his colleagues for being too quick to burden residents and businesses with new mandates, complained that Mirkarimi's legislation has taken too much of the board's time.
"We need to move on to address the larger issues in San Francisco," Jew said shortly before he voted against the ordinance.
Supervisor Michela Alioto-Pier, who introduced amendments this month that will subject pharmacy chains to the legislation, said many large businesses in San Francisco already participate in recycling programs.
"The target of this legislation is the bags themselves and improving the environment," she said.
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Plastic bags by the numbers
180 million
Roughly the number of plastic shopping bags distributed in San Francisco each year.
2 to 3 cents
Amount each bag costs markets, compared with anywhere from 5 to 10 cents for a biodegradable bag.
4 trillion to 5 trillion
Number of nondegradable plastic bags used worldwide annually.
430,000 gallons
Amount of oil needed to produce 100 million nondegradable plastic bags.
Source: S.F. Department of the Environment; Worldwatch Institute
E-mail Charlie Goodyear at cgoodyear@sfchronicle.com.
This article appeared on page A - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle
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Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2007 8:15 pm
Even though San Francisco is a very progressive and environmentally aware city, I was surprised to hear about this new ban. It would be wonderful to see fewer plastic bags blowing around on our streets!
On the way to work one day, I found a bird tangled up in a plastic bag- it had one wing caught in each handle, and the bag itself was acting like an air-break. It billowed out behind the bird like a parachute everytime the poor thing tried to fly off, so the bird was leaping around in traffic and unable to get free. Eventually, it would either have worn itself to exhaustion and become easy prey for cruel pranks or predators (the latter of which may have ingested the bag and been killed as well), or hit by a car. Fortunately, I was able to catch it- not without some effort, but I wore it down until I was able to put my foot on the bag before it took off again. I unwound the straps, which were very tight, and let the bird go after a quick examination. Not all birds are this lucky. Fewer bags on the streets will not only make the city look a whole lot nicer, but it will reduce the frequency of these sorts of tragedies. I'm not naive enough to think that people will care about the fate of a pigeon, but as for me I love the birds- and I hate to see such meaningless suffering... especially when I know that it is entirely our fault when it happens.
Furthermore, if we have biodegradable bags I will no longer have to buy them for composting!
I don't know which way our grocery stores are going to go- biodegradable or simply paper- but our hospital is planning on participating in this ban even though we don't have a large enough pharmacy to be included in the mandate. Our office manager says she's looking into biodegradable bags... I'm so excited! blaugh
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Posted: Sat Apr 14, 2007 5:51 am
Easy solution to the "but consumers will have to pay more" argument: make them buy the bags. This is how they do it in Denmark. If you need a bag to take your crap home in, you put it on the conveyor belt with the rest of your stuff, and pay a few cents for it. The last time I was at IKEA in the US, they did this too. This only has a positive side, in my opinion. If you're annoyed about spending the money, you'll bring in a bag to reuse, which is the best option anyway.
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Posted: Sat Apr 14, 2007 2:00 pm
Plastic bags litter our streets and harm our little critters (like Weben's bird heart ), but paper bags just means cutting down more trees, which in turn means less photosynthesis, which then means less CO2 is turned into O2 and thus more global warming. gonk Plus trees provide habitat for SO SO SO SO SO many different animals.
And the biodegradable bag...How is it made? 'Cuz if it's made in CO2-producing factories, that's not that much better. xp
I still go with the re-usable cloth bag for groceries and drugs.
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Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2007 12:55 pm
Wow is this city the first one to use such a ban?
I think its a good idea, and I would prefer to use fabric bags and rucksacks etc rather than plastic bags - for a start they look nicer!! xd
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Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2007 3:39 pm
rikuHEART And the biodegradable bag...How is it made? 'Cuz if it's made in CO2-producing factories, that's not that much better. xp I still go with the re-usable cloth bag for groceries and drugs. Hey, good point- I hadn't considered that! But, I think that the companies producing biodegradable bags are doing so as part of a movement toward more environmentally friendly products... so I doubt that their production technologies would be any worse than what is already being used, and since they're using more organic materials I suspect they'd be a great deal improved! But this is definitely something to think about... I will mention it to our office manager as she's looking around for suppliers. JagraXen Wow is this city the first one to use such a ban? I think its a good idea, and I would prefer to use fabric bags and rucksacks etc rather than plastic bags - for a start they look nicer!! xd First one in the States, at least 3nodding - I think there may be places in other countries which were already on the ball. I asked one of the ladies at our grocery store what they were going to do, and she said they would likely switch to canvas bags. I already have some of those... though I rarely remember to bring them to the store with me, heh. I have about seven months to improve my habits, though- they tell me that's how long it's going to take to enact the ban. Apparently styrofoam was also banned earlier on, so by the end of this year we'll be seeing significantly less of both of those items! Woot!
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Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2007 10:18 am
I wouldn't mind paying a little extra in taxes for biodegradable bags.
Not only that, but paper bags are easy to recycle.
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Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2007 3:17 pm
I pay extra for the biodegradable bags anyway, since I buy them for compostables.^_^ If they just gave them to me with my groceries, it'd probably save me money (since they'd be getting them in bulk, and could pass the savings on to me). Also, it would make it easier for more people to participate in the composting program we've already got here in SF.
Too bad Safeway doesn't seem likely to go that way, but I can still hope for more from Whole Foods!
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Posted: Sat Apr 21, 2007 4:14 pm
We usually get our groceries from Trader Joe's, which is pretty environmentally aware, but not as much as Whole Foods. They offer a raffle ticket every time you bring in one of their canvas bags for groceries, and it's either every week or every month or something like that when they draw a ticket out for a cart of $25 worth in groceries. Most of the stuff they sell is also organic and all-natural. ^_^
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