Starting Tuesday, plastic bags illegal at big San Francisco grocery stores

[Auggie]

San Francisco Chronicle, 11-19-07:

Starting Tuesday, large grocery stores in the city can no longer use the traditional plastic bags that are a staple of the supermarket checkout line, as a city ordinance passed earlier this year to ban the bags takes effect.

The 180 million plastic bags city officials estimate are handed out in the city each year end up as litter on city streets, clog storm drains, harm wildlife, and contaminate and jam machines used in recycling. Under the new policy, passed by the city's Board of Supervisors in March, only retail businesses and smaller grocery stores will be able to hand out the bags.

Six months from now, pharmacy chains will also have to comply. The policy will be the first enacted in the United States. Oakland passed a similar ban that goes into effect early next year and London and Paris both have followed San Francisco's lead. City enforcement will start Dec. 1.

Stores can still use plastic bags so long as they are a special type that are compostable. Bags must now be made of at least 40 percent high-grade recycled paper, and many stores are using bags made from 100 percent recycled paper.

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The full story: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/11/19/BA2BTE64K.DTL&tsp=1