Paper, Plastic Bag Foes Set Sights on Reusable Bag Proposals

With more cities looking at banning or taxing paper and plastic bags, advocates are proposing eliminating both.

May 24, 2010

SAN FRANCISCO - In 2007, San Francisco became the first U.S. city to forbid plastic shopping bags. Two additional California cities--Palo Alto and Oakland?"soon followed suit.

Three years later, these and other cities considering banning plastic bags are rethinking their regulations because many shoppers simply switched from plastic to paper bags, the New York Times reports. Shoppers take home around 90 million plastic bags each year in the United States. In San Francisco, officials projected that the ban has kept around 100 million plastic bags out of circulation as of last fall.

"We saw in the experience of San Francisco and other cities that a plastic-bag ordinance pushes consumers to use paper," said Sam Liccardo, a member of the San Jose City Council, "which in many instances is as bad or worse than plastic, when you consider the water, energy and natural resources involved in production, and the transportation costs, and of course, consuming trees."

Three California localities?"San Jose, Berkeley and Santa Clara County?"are considering ordinances that limit paper and plastic bags at checkout, either via fees, bans or both. Ultimately, the goal is to make shoppers bring their own reusable bags to the store.

Plastic-only bans have generated some lawsuits. In Oakland, for example, the plastics industry sued the city over its ban, citing it as illegal because no environmental-impact study had been done on the rising use of paper bags. A judge overturned the Oakland ban.

San Jose is reviewing both plastic and paper bags in its crafting of a bag ban. The city??s proposal would forbid plastic and paper bags at retail stores, with an exemption for restaurants and nonprofits. Paper bags made from 40 percent recycled materials also would be exempt.

Berkeley??s proposal would ban plastic bags at checkout and tack a 15-cent fee on paper bags. Santa Clara County??s proposal would outlaw free plastic and paper bags at retail stores in unincorporated areas of the county. Retailers could sell entirely recyclable paper bags.

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement