Little more than a year ago, San Francisco passed the Plastic Bag Reduction Ordinance. It banned the use of non-recyclable plastic bags by major supermarket and drug chains and other large retailers.
As San Francisco's board of supervisors predicted, other municipalities have begun taking steps to limit the use of plastic, and, in some cases, paper bags. Seattle's mayor and city council president, for example, are proposing a law that would require supermarkets, drug stores and convenience stores to place a 20-cent fee on disposable bags – both plastic and paper. The objective is to encourage shoppers to carry reusable bags.
A similar tactic has been very successful in Ireland, which placed a tax of the equivalent of 33 cents on plastic bags in 2002. According to published reports, plastic bag use there dropped 94%, and the decline is attributed more to social consciousness than to the tax.
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