Wednesday, January 24, 2007

BYOB, San Francisco


In 2005, San Francisco was considering imposing a 17 cent tax on plastic bags (like many other countries and cities have done, including Ireland, which reduced usage by 90% after imposing theirs). Grocery chains opposed, and brokered a deal to voluntarily reduce plastic bag usage by 10 million bags. Well, saying please didn't work, and the grocers aren't cooperating by submitting vital info such as how many bags they actually do go through every year. So, now local law-makers have introduced legislation that would force stores to substantially reduce plastic bag usage. It's not really clear what that would entail other than the vague mandate to use "recyclable, biodegradable or reusable bags". Nonetheless, it's super-exciting that this issue is finally picking up steam so close to home! I say we beat 'em to it and get L.A. to ban plastic bags before they get around to it in July. This could be bigger than, er, the Dodgers vs the Giants! Who's on board?

Go here to read about what's going on in SF.

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