Petroleum?! Poo on Plastic!

I'm always disgusted with the amount of plastic bags we always seem to accumulate after a trip to the grocery store. And every time I store them away I think, We need to bring these with us the next time we go shopping so we can reuse them! But then, old age kicks in and I never remember to do so until we're already away from home or at the store.

Some of the bags we do use for garbage, but proportionately, it's not enough to use even half the bags! Last time we went shopping, I did remember to bring the bags with us and was happy. But when we got home, I was still left unfulfilled since we still had other unused bags.

Anyway, this advanced nation we live in is yet again so far behind everyone else. Here's a story from CNN.com:

San Francisco to ban plastic grocery bags

POSTED: 10:40 a.m. EDT, March 28, 2007

Story Highlights

• Rule applies to shopping bags made from petroleum products
• Proponent says ban would save 450,000 gallons of oil a year
• Board of Supervisors votes yes, mayor likely to sign law

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." (Watch why it's no longer politically correct to 'think plastics' )

"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.

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