San Francisco passes a ban on plastic bags

**Neeley** · 03-29-2007, 12:26 AM

I thought some of you night find this interesting.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070328/...lastic_bag_ban

**lullaby80** · 03-29-2007, 02:33 PM

Yup, way to go SF!! Now I want to move back there, lol.

**FrugalWitch** · 03-29-2007, 07:41 PM

Maybe in 15 years it'll pass in AL.

**Edna_E** · 03-29-2007, 10:51 PM

Give it 20 - 30 years for NM (except for Santa Fe, which is rather ahead of the rest of the state a lot of the time).

**tbs727** · 03-30-2007, 09:19 AM

I'll give it another 40 years before it comes to Arkansas.

**britbunny** · 04-01-2007, 06:41 AM

Thanks for the link, we usually catch on to what's going on in California about 10 years later so let's see what happens... The UK missed out on a big chance to reduce our consumption of bags a couple of years ago by introducing a tax so each bag would cost 10p, Aldi and places like that have always charged about 3p per bag. But the government did not take this opportunity, unlike the Republic of Ireland so we continue to drown in a sea of plastic.

Most supermarkets have what they call a "bag for life" which is a big sturdy plastic bag designed to be used many times - often with the proceeds of the purchase going to charity. Also Tesco, the Uk's largest supermarket, gives "green points" on the loyalty card when customers reuse bags or use another method of transporting their groceries. It's just a ploy to get the green pound but it's better than a kick in the face.

It is becoming very fashionable to be "green" over here though, which is good in some senses but I think it also alienates some people as it's seen as something that people with money do and it's too expensive for people on low income to achieve (the article below mentions the hype and excitement about a particular shopping bag being sported by all the so-called celebrities).

Below is a link to an article in yesterday's paper, which talks about the impact our (British) use of plastic bags has on China - where the bags are manufactured initially and where they return for "recycling". It's a shame the website doesn't show all the pictures that appeared in the paper as some people are using old packaging to make some AMAZING reusable bags

http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/st...045358,00.html

**Marie78** · 04-02-2007, 03:54 AM

I think it's a start. I use the plastic bags for my garbage pals, but it would be fine to use the paper or the plastic that is biodegradable. It would be nice if the paper option was recycled paper that could be recycled again. I wouldn't mind if stores forced us to use our own cloth bags to shop. Maybe it would cut back on excess and address needs rather than the overabundance of impulse buys or "wants" in our society.

**iida** · 04-02-2007, 06:30 AM

This is a big issue over here (in Finland) as well. My brother is married to a woman from Thailand. They spent the whole winter there. My Brother said he was horrified to see how the environmental issues were taken over there. He said that if you buy two CDs you get three plastic bags with them, one for each CD and one for the both of them.

iida

**Jayne** · 04-02-2007, 10:36 AM

great idea!!...more places need to do this.....we went to Ikea the other week and you have to buy the plastic bags for 5 cents each or you can buy a very large, nice reusable bag with handles for 59cents..thats what we did and it has come in handy...its made out of the blue tarp material...and I believe it said the money from the sale of these goes to stopping the destruction of rainforests

**AmyMCGS** · 04-04-2007, 08:48 AM

When my husband saw this in the news, his comment was that he thought California was the state that started refusing the paper grocery sacks years ago & got everyone using plastic. (I'd have to do some research to see if that's correct or not... he wasn't positive.) He wanted to know what they were going to pack groceries in now.

I told him the next big business will be selling the reusable totes.

The only place I know of around here (SW Ohio) that doesn't give out plastic bags is Aldi. You can buy them for ten cents each (I think that's the price) or you can bring your own. You can also use their leftover boxes if they have any laying around. I don't mind that, but I do usually forget to bring a bag and end up using a box.