http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=s ... bag_charge

San Francisco May Charge for Grocery Bags

1 hour, 49 minutes ago

SAN FRANCISCO - San Francisco may become the first city in the nation to charge shoppers for grocery bags.

The city's Commission on the Environment is expected to ask the mayor and board of supervisors Tuesday to consider a 17-cent per bag charge on paper and plastic grocery bags. While the goal is reducing plastic bag pollution, paper was added so as not to discriminate.

"The whole point is to encourage the elimination of waste, not to make people pay more for groceries," said Mark Murray, executive director of Californians Against Waste.

Environmentalists argue that plastic bags jam machinery, pollute waterways and often end up in trees. In addition to large supermarkets, other outfits that regularly use plastic bags, including smaller grocery stores, dry cleaners and takeout restaurants, could eventually be targeted.

Officials calculate that the city spends 5.2 cents per bag annually for street litter pickup and 1.4 cents per bag for extra recycling costs.

Grocers and bag manufacturers argue that many people already reuse their plastic bags, and that the use of plastic won't go down because people will purchase plastic trash bags to use instead. Other opponents call the plan an unfair and regressive tax on shoppers.

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This is a great concept--I absolutely HATE it when the store double-plastic bags my six pack of beer that already has a handle. However, I'd go a different path than what SF is doing--make a plastic bag deposit, similar to can and glass deposits in Oregon and other states. This would give more people an incentive to recycle them.

I reuse our plastic grocery bags when I clean the cat box.

i throw all plastic bags i get from the grocery store into the streams near my house

Peeps, everytime I want to dislike you for one of your posts, you come up with a gem like this and I can't help but think you're one funny motherfucker.

This is silly. They should up the ante on people who litter. That would solve the problem, not taxing the use of plastic bags. I use plastic bags and discard them when they tear or am done with them. What's so fucking hard about that. Some people are idiots.

That's one of your better posts peeps. hahaha

Anyway, I agree with Nick here. I always recycle my bags anyway, so it wouldnt be any problem for me, and the more people who are motivated to do the same is a-ok with me.
And if you dont like that idea, you can buy your own bags that you just bring with you to the store and reuse them that way.

Wimps. Using a tax is no way to go. They should outlaw plastic bags entirely.

Then we will all bring reuseable hemp bags to the supermarket with us.

Believe it or not, Bangladesh is a leader here - they banned the plastic bags because people were using so many and they were clogging public drains and stuff. My husband went there last christmas and told me. Now when people need a bag, they have these very thing cloth bags, but many people already brought their own bags - we have just been spoiled here.

I do this also.

I use cloth bags with handles for my groceries, so I'm not worried about it. Perhaps if so many bags weren't left lying around the street, they would change their tune, (let alone all the land fill).

When I do get paper or plastic bags, I either reuse them (for the litter box, etc.) or I put them in the recycle bin. But I instead just keep about 6 cloth bags with handles in my car (they were $1.99 each and hold a ton of stuff) and grab one when going to the store.

The only exception is when I go to Target, and that's just because most of the stuff I get there doesn't go in bags anyway (paper towels, laundry detergent, etc.)

c-

I guess things will be like they are at Sam's Wholesale Club.

Do you know how many groceries I pick up at one time? Cloth bags will never fit an entire cart of groceries.

I use paper bags and recycle them.
Seems a lot easier than any alternative.

Bet me - they definately do. The only "problematic" items are boxes of Marie Calendar's Chicken Pot Pies - something about the box makes it get mushy and they always end up crinked. I regularly get an entire grocery cart of food into 6 large cloth bags; come shopping with me next Sunday and I'll show you how it's done. I bag them myself, the grocery clerks haven't a clue how to put stuff into a bag (any bag) properly.

They'll put that stuff in bags if you ask them.

No thanks. I don't care enough. I'll just stick to destroying the environment and killing birds and fish with my plastic bag usage. I'm going to Wal-mart later. I think I'll ask for everything double bagged in memory of this thread.

They've done that in quite a few local councils here. And all major supermarket chains have made available reusuable eco-shopping bags

I assume you tell them not to do that right? They will change if enough people request it.. let's see some personal responsibility here Nick



I use bike panniers myself, but I've always wondered.. when supermarkets have the plastic bag deposits, are the plastic bags actually reused or are they recycled (i hate that word, let's call it downcycled) into other products? I'm all in favor of people reusing bags but it's a bad idea if the bags are downcycled into something else. I'd hope that's not the case.

I hear ya. I didn't so much switch because I was trying to save the world or anything, I just got tired of having so many paper and plastic bags that I didn't need - seemed a huge waste to just use them to get from the store to the car and the car to the house and then recycle them. The grocery store I go to lives you 5 cents back for ever bag you return to the store and use for your groceries.

yet only what, 10 states have "Bottle Deposit" laws? Made famous by the episode of Seinfeld, this is a great way to keep roadside littering down. I read an article a couple years back, that the State of Michigan, before instituting the 10 cent deposit on Bottles and Cans, was expecting only about 60% of them to actually be returned.... and were going to use the money to fund schools or some shit...

then, i beleive over 98% of all pop and beer bottles in the State of Michigan are returned and recycled.

I wish more people would recycle their bags. I also wish people wouldn't ask for ludicrous things like double-paper-in-plastic. It's a waste of time and bags and... it's silly.