San Francisco to ban plastic grocery bags

[BigSqwert]

From CNN (LINK)

 

SAN FRANCISCO, California (Reuters) -- San Francisco's Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to become the first U.S. city to ban plastic bags from large supermarkets to help promote recycling.

 

Under the legislation, beginning in six months large supermarkets and drugstores will not be allowed to offer plastic bags made from petroleum products.

 

"Many [foreign] cities and nations have already implemented very similar legislation," said Ross Mirkarimi, the city legislator who championed the new law. "It's astounding that San Francisco would be the first U.S. city to follow suit."

 

"I am hopeful that other U.S. cities will also adopt similar legislation," he said. "Why wait for the federal government to enact legislation that gets to the core of this problem when local governments can just step up to the plate?"

 

The city's Department of the Environment said San Francisco uses 181 million plastic grocery bags annually. Plans dating back a decade to encourage recycling of the bags have largely failed, with shoppers returning just one percent of bags, said department spokesman Mark Westland.

 

Mirkarimi said the ban would save 450,000 gallons of oil a year and remove the need to send 1,400 tons of debris now sent annually to landfills. The new rules would, however, allow recyclable plastic bags, which are not widely used today.

 

A spokesman for San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who must approve or veto the legislation, called it sensible. "Chances are good that he is going to sign it," said Nathan Ballard.

 

Sounds like a good idea. I hope Mayor "Green" Daley follows suit.

Edited March 28, 2007 by BigSqwert

[Texsox]

It isn't a total gain, petroleum in used in the cutting down of trees and processing them into paper bags. I try and use reusable bags whenever possible, but some stores make it so damn impossible to bring your own bags in.

[BigSqwert]

...I try and use reusable bags whenever possible...

As do I. That and my enormous backpack.

[NorthSideSox72]

It isn't a total gain, petroleum in used in the cutting down of trees and processing them into paper bags.

But its a start, and that's something. Paper products are very recycleable at least, and wood pulp is of course a renewable resource.

[CanOfCorn]

I "recycle" my plastic bags in different ways though. I use them for cat poop. Wouldn't work as well in paper bags, though. Recyclable plastic would be great!

[NorthSideSox72]

I "recycle" my plastic bags in different ways though. I use them for cat poop. Wouldn't work as well in paper bags, though. Recyclable plastic would be great!

cat poop - also, unfortunately, a renewable resource.

[EvilMonkey]

cat poop - also, unfortunately, a renewable resource.

The person that could effectively generate power from cat poop (or dog poop) would be a gazillionaire! A never-ending completely renewable resource!

[Reddy]

The person that could effectively generate power from cat poop (or dog poop) would be a gazillionaire! A never-ending completely renewable resource!

or human poop for that matter

 

[Middle Buffalo]

The person that could effectively generate power from cat poop (or dog poop) would be a gazillionaire! A never-ending completely renewable resource!

I'm sure Al Gore is already working on this.

[CanOfCorn]

I'm sure Al Gore is already working on this.

 

I don't know if he can handle running the internet and synthesizing human poop at the same time...

[greasywheels121]

I prefer paper bags, as I use those for trash and what not.

[Balta1701]

It isn't a total gain, petroleum in used in the cutting down of trees and processing them into paper bags. I try and use reusable bags whenever possible, but some stores make it so damn impossible to bring your own bags in.

Interesting note...a large majority of the wood pulp used in making most paper products in this country does not come from trees any more. Most of the paper goods you buy are made of some combination of recycled paper and scrap from cutting wood to make products out of lumber (furniture, homes, etc.).

[Texsox]

Interesting note...a large majority of the wood pulp used in making most paper products in this country does not come from trees any more. Most of the paper goods you buy are made of some combination of recycled paper and scrap from cutting wood to make products out of lumber (furniture, homes, etc.).

 

My point being, and please correct me if I am wrong, the total energy to make a paper bag is smaller than producing a plastic bag. It isn't a 100% gain of those oil resources.

[SnB]

I worked as a bagger for 3 years in high school at dominick's.

 

We sure wasted alot of plastic bags.

 

But paper bags are a b****.

[Queen Prawn]

I know Jewel has a recycling bin for plastic bags (I have a sack of them ready to go for recycling). That is one thing I like about Aldi's stores. I bought 3 bags about 4-5 months ago that I use for every trip.

[Texsox]

I worked as a bagger for 3 years in high school at dominick's.

 

We sure wasted alot of plastic bags.

 

But paper bags are a b****.

 

That's the other bad thing about plastic, I noticed my local Walmart seems to put every item in plastic bag. I'll come home and have nine or ten, when three or four would have worked.

[Controlled Chaos]

I worked as a bagger for 3 years in high school at dominick's.

 

We sure wasted alot of plastic bags.

 

But paper bags are a b****.

I did it for one year as well. The people asking for double paper in plastic were the worst. Talk about a pain in the ass. Not as much as pushing carts thru the snow, but it still sucked. Speaking of pushing carts, I saw some automated s*** at Target last week. The kid just hooked the carts together and drove them in. What's up with that??

[kapkomet]

I hate seeing all the plastic bags littering everything across from (insert box store here).

[Texsox]

I did it for one year as well. The people asking for double paper in plastic were the worst. Talk about a pain in the ass. Not as much as pushing carts thru the snow, but it still sucked. Speaking of pushing carts, I saw some automated s*** at Target last week. The kid just hooked the carts together and drove them in. What's up with that??

 

Every big box down here has them. Pushing carts in 104 degree temps is not healthy.

[Middle Buffalo]

I did it for one year as well. The people asking for double paper in plastic were the worst. Talk about a pain in the ass. Not as much as pushing carts thru the snow, but it still sucked. Speaking of pushing carts, I saw some automated s*** at Target last week. The kid just hooked the carts together and drove them in. What's up with that??

I set a record at Builder's Square pushing the longest train of carts from the lot into the store in 1992. It stood until the day they turned it into a dollar store.

 

The mutants that worked with me loading cars looked at me like I was C3PO in a world of Ewoks.

[retro1983hat]

This in my opinion, is dumb. I reuse my plastic bags. Why would paper be reused any more than plastic?

[NorthSideSox72]

This in my opinion, is dumb. I reuse my plastic bags. Why would paper be reused any more than plastic?

I don't think that the point is individual re-use. Its the fact that plastic is made, in part, from petroleum, which is a non-renewable resource.

[Kalapse]

I set a record at Builder's Square pushing the longest train of carts from the lot into the store in 1992. It stood until the day they turned it into a dollar store.

 

The mutants that worked with me loading cars looked at me like I was C3PO in a world of Ewoks.

One faithful Christmas just 2 years ago when I as well as 2 other guys from our High School football team took up employment at the local Jewel (I had already been there for like a year but they signed on for a few months to earn some extra cash) we got a train going that was over 80 carts long. This can really only be done during a holiday when there are a s*** load of carts in the lot and you have more personnel available for gathering and guiding the train. We had a lineman pushing the train from behind, while a linebacker and I (safety) guided the monster. We some how managed to get this beast from the backlot to the store front without incident and the record does stand to this day. We don't know exactly how many carts were actually on the train but it was somewhere between 85 and 100.

[SleepyWhiteSox]

A homeless gentleman would help me and gather most of the carts as long as I bought a streetwise or two when I got paid every two weeks way back when I was working at a Jewel over the summer at 16.

 

And no more plastic bags would suck. They fit perfectly in the wastebaskets in my room, the basemant bathroom, laundry room, etc. And when I go to food-4-less where you have to bag your own groceries, I'll quintuple bag everything so that I have a healthy supply for the wastebaskets.

[shoota]

I did it for one year as well. The people asking for double paper in plastic were the worst. Talk about a pain in the ass. Not as much as pushing carts thru the snow, but it still sucked. Speaking of pushing carts, I saw some automated s*** at Target last week. The kid just hooked the carts together and drove them in. What's up with that??

 

haha, I've said the same. I developed a dislike for old people while working as a bagger. I took great pleasure in f'ing with the elderly when they accidentally asked for plastic in paper when they really meant paper in plastic. Granny, this doesn't look right, oh that's what you asked for.

 

I also invented fake bags, which consisted of 3-5 bundles of plastic bags dropped into one plastic bag (for weight), with its handles tied in a knot, preventing the customer from seeing what groceries were in that bag (none). Sometimes I would triple bag the knots to make it even more frustrating for the customer. The customer would struggle to open the bag, then discover there was just garbage in the bag.

 

Chaos, you're dead on about those automated cart pushers. How weak. One day in the lot, the other two kids and I talked about the longest train of carts we've ever pushed, and decided to go for a store record. It was a nice summer day so we liked the idea of sitting on our asses waiting for the lot to fill up with carts. After a couple hours, we assembled something like 108 carts. We could have gotten more, but the train was so long that customers couldn't back out of their parking spots. They became upset, so the three of us started to push the train. We could barely move it. So one dude gets his beater car and pushes it while us other two steered it.

 

That was my favorite job ever, and looking back, I can understand why Kevin Spacey's character in American Beauty wanted to go back to a job of his youth.

Edited March 28, 2007 by shoota