San Francisco Moves To Ban Plastic Bags

(CBS/AP)  San Francisco city leaders approved a ban on plastic grocery bags after weeks of lobbying on both sides from environmentalists and a supermarket trade group.

If Mayor Gavin Newsom signs the ban as expected, San Francisco would be the first U.S. city to adopt such a rule.

The law, passed by a 10-1 vote, requires large markets and drug stores to give customers only a choice among bags made of paper that can be recycled, plastic that breaks down easily enough to be made into compost, or reusable cloth.

Major grocery stores, with annual retail sales of $2 million or more have until October to switch to something that dissolves more easily, reports Manuel Ramos of CBS station KPIX. Large pharmacies have until next year.

"I think it's good. I think the environment needs to get greener," said shopper Heidi Bass.

"You see them flying around all the time on the streets," added shopper Lexi Kent-Monning.

San Francisco supervisors and supporters said that by banning the petroleum-based sacks, blamed for littering streets and choking marine life, the measure would go a long way toward helping the city earn its green stripes.

"Hopefully, other cities and states will follow suit, just like many other countries have done and cities in other countries," said Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, who crafted the ban after trying to get a 15-cent per bag tax passed in 2005. "They've either banned plastic bags altogether, levied a very high fee or have sought an alternative like a biodegradable bag."

San Francisco officials estimate up to 200 million of these plastic bags are used each year, reports CBS News correspondent Steve Futterman.

The 50 grocery stores that would be most affected by the law argued that the ban was not reasonable because plastic bags made of corn byproducts are a relatively new, expensive and untested product. Some said they might offer only paper bags at checkout.

"I think what grocers will do now that this has passed is, they will review all their options and decide what they think works best for them economically," said David Heylen, a spokesman for the California Grocers Association.

Newsom supported the measure.

Craig Noble, a spokesman for the Natural Resources Defense Council, said it would be disappointing if grocers rejected the biodegradable plastic bag option, since more trees would have to be cut down if paper bag use increases.

The new breed of bags "offers consumers a way out of a false choice, a way out of the paper or plastic dilemma," Noble said.

[michellem99-2009]

1,I use the cloth bags and they stowed neatly in my pack so when I go the store I have them.
The carts are dirtier than my bags,
2. The counter where you place your food to be rung up is dirtier than my bags.
3.You have no idea who has handled what or if they washed their hands after using the restroom.
4.When you shop for your food, where you touch is dirtier than my bags.
5. I went cloth bags so they can/are washed as I walk to and from the store.
6. Most people are dirtier than my bags.
7.I am not any better the next person.
This my say.

[hermit22]

rather than plastic bags at the counter, clerk puts the stuff into a cleanable PORTABLE BOX cart marked PAID. customer moves that cart to parking lot,or a REPACK area, where the customer can put goods into whatever container they think makes sence. if you shop for 4-6 weeks at a time....repack into a sealable lid trunk box....if you just buy a quart of milk repack it into your cloth bag or into your pocket, but DO NOT put "who knows what" up on the grocery check out counters. ....KIDS,who may have wondered right through doo doo and bubble gum etc, stay OUT of the grocery carts too, unless they stay in the seats provided.

[hermit22]

Ecuadoriana, do you live in california or someplace south? i worked for awhile in food manufacturing in the midwest where they run a tight ship on foods etc. it is NOT like the NY rats playing in the restaurant, or the rats running around the produce like the report on California produce etc.

california food growers need to provide decent bathrooms for workers.

[ecuadoriana]

"...i do not like to see some old filthy "reused bag" on the grocery counter. how many times has someone sneezed on it in the last week? have they plopped that bag on the dirty floor? does it go into the trunk with the rest of the grime?..."
Posted by Hermit22 at 09:38 PM : Mar 28, 2007

Wow, Hermit22, do you not wash your produce off before consuming it because you assume that everyone from the migrant farmer in the field to the pimply faced store clerk has been sprayed down with anti-bacterial soap?

Those "filthy, reused bags" are a heck of a lot cleaner than the produce that was handled repeatedly by even filthier hands before it even made it INTO the store!

How about the shoppers who steal a few grapes & then hand a few to their nose-picking kid? Do you seriously believe that every time an onion rolls onto the floor one of the employees rushes it into the back room & hoses it down? You know they just toss it back into the bin. Do you think the tomatoes just magically grew in the produce isle? How do you think the shelves get stocked- by some sterile robotic arm in a plastic, air-tight bubble? What about that bag boy? Were you not aware that he was out smoking a cigarette on his break & never even boiled his hands before he put your germ-free items in the bag?

Yet you, the germ phobic, have no qualms about dirtying up the environment with more & more plastic bags which you've falsely led yourself to believe are sterile & germ free when filling up the landfills.

[michellem99-2009]

I have my own cloth bags and my jean purse and they do get washed. I am into recycling. I am one who rather use my own bags as I can carry them and they don't cut into my arm. I have seen the stories of women's bags being nasty as it's sick but I try to keed them clean. I am just a poor person that feel cloth is better. I don't care about a few cents as it's for Mum Earth and the US of A. I am for this and I don't live in CA.

[alaskaorb]

I mean, for cryin out loud people. A pope has the audacity to give voice to some truth about Islam and the next thing you know, some group's out their slitting the throat of a nun to prove what he said isn't true? An administration who at every opportunity tries to circumvent environmental laws because it would place to much of a cost burden on industry (and by the way has, like my father, decided that they, the poloticians know better than the scientists what that scientific report on global warming should say). 12 soldiers held hostage by Iran, a meglomaniatic dictator on the Korean peninsila with nukes, and a Venisualan leader sellin us oil right after he flipped us the bird (and we're still buying it), people of different faiths swearing up and down that a rock in the middle of a god forsaken desert is the most important place in all the universe to God, and you guy's are freakin out about plastic bags. Holly ***!!!

[alaskaorb]

You know, I say the more plastic the better. No, really! If it weren't for plastic, my father, who knows everything about anything you'd care to discuss, wouldn't have anything to burn on the weekend. We don't need any more electric or hybrid cars either. Just the other day as I was admiring the pile of cigarette butts at the curb while waiting for the light to change and the camera to take my picture, I was thinking to myself, that song's really beautiful, and then my mind went to some of the paintings I'd seen and the books I'd read. Then I saw one of those plastic bags blow past the car. Then it occured to me. I had an (and I'm sure I'll spell this incorrectly) an epiphany! All of these beautiful things that have come into creation, either through man or nature, will some day not exist. The world as we know it will come to an end and we'll have gone with it. There won't be anything left of us, except maybe for those plastic bags. And even those, in the end will be gone. We have the ability to change, to change our stewardship of the things around us, to finally overcome our obsesion with wealth and power, but as long as we elect preachers to the presidency, and cultures continue to teach their children that it's ok to strap bombs to themselves and blow up other people's children, then what the hell, trash the place. It's gone already.

[mo005]

Hermit22: Says("i do not like to see some old filthy "reused bag" on the grocery counter. how many times has someone sneezed on it in the last week? have they plopped that bag on the dirty floor?") Where in the heck do you think those cans and bottles and everything else has been your buying!!! Someone sneezed on something you just bought. Hello, If you own the bags you clean the bags. I work on the road and wash my clothes while living out of motels. I carry a mesh laundry bag that I clean along with the dirty clothes. I'f you wash your bags once a week with your other stuff they will be clean and so will the world outside. Really look along side of the road and count the number of bags blowing down the interstate.

[hermit22]

did you see the report on those tests on women's purses and bags? they were FILTHY with germs and bacteria. i do not like to see some old filthy "reused bag" on the grocery counter. how many times has someone sneezed on it in the last week? have they plopped that bag on the dirty floor? does it go into the trunk with the rest of the grime? did it have raw meat in it before?
and then some "holier than thou" brings it back to the grocery store to save a bag. NO THANKS!

[ca659]

Bravo, San Francisco!!