San Francisco Passes Plastic-Bag Ban

I believe there is a law in Ireland that enforces stores to charge for plastic carry out bags. The charge allegedly goes to local authority waste control (I think). Banning them seems a bit harsh, but may be the next logical step?

Banning them seems like a good idea to me. But what's the alternative? Right now it would be paper or reusable canvas bags. Is using paper more environmentally friendly? The canvas bags are a great idea for people who do small shops, but I shop weekly or sometimes bi-weekly for my family and would need to purchase 10-15 canvas bags - $$$!

I have to admit, we tend to use canvas bags about 2 times bigger then ordinary throwaway bags, mainly because they make things easier to put in the car. Oh, and you only have to buy them once, they last for ages!

Hi T-rex. But canvas bags last for years, mine is 22 years old and I am still using it. Spencer.

Hi PlbMak. Most European countries make a customer pay for a plastic bag, and in the Netherlands it costs 25 euro cent per bag. In the Scandinavian countries they use bio-degradable plastic bags, and these have been around for many years. Why they have not caught on in the UK defies logic, but then again, the Scandinavians are very much aware of their envoronment. Myself I use a canvas bag that is now 22 years old. Spencer.

The Irish legislation was supposed to be to cut down on litter, and the same thing is threatened in Scotland.

Some stores (German owned) already charge for their bags, and others are selling durable "bags for life" - where one purchase is reused until it is damaged, and then replaced free of charge.

The most poly bag litter in Edinburgh, though, is the large, blue, heavy duty bags all households have been given by the council for putting the paper recycling into! They are emptied kerbside, and left poked into gates, etc, and often blow away.

Are............irony in action!

Could the offending plastic bags themselves be recycled? Has anyone thought of this idea? A law that says used plastic grocery bags are to be taken back to the store so the bags can be recycled into new plastic bags. I have seen pictures of the space needed to store the same number of plastic and paper grocery bags. The space saved with plastic is phenominal to paper. Let us recycle, not pass more restrictive laws.

The problem with returning plastic bags to the store to be reused is, most often when you have a heavy object like a two liter bottle of soda the plastic bag will have a hole in it. We have brought home ten bags of stuff from the store and thrown eight bags away because of holes in them. We reuse plastic bags for kitty litter cleanup and doggy doo pickup. So the good bags do go to a good use.

I said "recycle" not "reuse". Recycle the plastic bags, meaning, melt them down and make NEW bags out of the old plastic. Just like turning in aluminum, glass and plastic water bottles, these bags can be turned also, for recycling. (understand?)

The local authority here, responsible for accepting recycling domestic packaging, has strict guidelines as to what it will and won't accept: one cannot put all plastics in the plastic recycling, for example. Milk bottles, fabric softener bottles, washing liquid bottles, etc., are all fine. Scraps of plastic wrapper, spent plastic bags, off-cuts of pipe and electric cable, and a damaged uPVC window frame all go to landfill. What about that for being "choosy"? Cross the parish boundary, just 25m away, and a different local authority has different rules.

More mental stuff: It is illegal for firewood to be burnt on a bonfire in the UK if it has come from outside the perimeter of the land parcel upon which it was grown, according to EEC rules. Not many people who run public bonfires on 5th November know this...

I'm sorry? you still have a bonfire!

The power to ban is being abused left and right, over every issues that comes along and at all levels of government. It has gotten way out of hand and, as a Libertarian, this trend is seriously concerning me.

The 'leaders' of the city of San Fransisco want to ban plastic bags because plastic polutes the environment? But, so does all the plastic that goes into all the junk we buy. From food containers to kitchen appliences to vacuum cleaners to shampoo bottles, most of what we buy is made of and or packaged in plastic. Plastic bags are nothing compared to all the plastic we fill them with and banning just the bags is a joke. If they really want to clean up the environment, or merely cut down on polution, they should consider helping the economy use only the nonbiodegradable materials that are 100% recyclable.

I agree, I think that it's kind of silly to ban plastic bags like that, but I just saw a flood plain in Dayton, Ohio where every single tree shrub etc had at least two plastic shopping bags on it from the years of bags being filtered out there. There were just hundreds of bags stuck to the branches and made the area just plain hideous. There were a few plastic bottles and random trash items lying around, but it was weird, about 90% of the visible garbage was bags because everything else washes down stream. Now the water has gone down, those bags are going to stay there for a long time. I think this was a very extreme case but made an area look really bad. I wish I got a picture, it just looked so weird.

So, you don't agree with the ban? Yet you don't like the consequences. You can see why the politicians ban things!

All above systems - bio-degradable (Co-op), charging (Aldi/Lidl), recycling (Tesco, Morrisons, Sainsbury) are used in the UK.

It is just a small - but noticable and identifiable - part of the litter/over use of resources problem. These laws - whether implemented or not - are used to raise public awareness of the need to respect the environment.

Hi GM1964. I also think that our governments ban on nearly everything is getting out of hand, but I also agree with you on this problem. I think that it is the mentality of a few of the British population that is causing the most problems, and before you ask, I am British, but I have lived and worked in many countries and I despair for my own country and the discusting attitude some of them have to their environment. What we need in Britain and a few other places is a complete change of attitude, and not only the consumers either. What about the supermarkets and the packaging companies? If supermarkets stopped giving out any plastic bags then the public would have to provide their own bags, or starve to death! Then there is the packaging, I was born in an era when we supplied our own shopping bags and nothing was wrapped in anything else than paper, which is of course is bio-degradable. I do not want or have even asked for a ban, and it is not necessary. The leaders of our country, including industrial giants and supermaket bosses should lead the way!

Having lived in San Francisco for over 20 years, I have a comment on this matter.

Question: Why are San Francisco Politics and a granola bar the same?

Answer: They are both full of nuts, flakes and fruits.

Over 200 years of San Francisco History proves this.

I am in full agreement of elminating flimsy plastic bags that can only be used once (holes and wear)... I'm partially on board for complete bans... as previously mentioned, people will ultimately buy bags for pet waste etc.

I just want everyone to know, that as a cashier... part of the sacrifice of banning these bags are making sure you be patient in those long long line ups at the grocery store on Saturdays and holidays..... we can only pack canvas and laundry baskets so fast - it would also be nice if the customer helped pack rather than critcize how things are being placed. Having another employee to help pack will only increase costs at store level, thus raising grocery costs.