SF looks to bag paper, not just plastic (San Francisco, Montclair: credit, how much)

[18Montclair]

Interesting. I think its a good idea.

The Associated Press: San Francisco looks to bag paper, not just plastic

[skyway31]

They need to get the cashiers and bag-boys on board with this as well. I can't tell you how many times I'm checking out at a grocery store and they put ONE (1) item in a bag by itself. Aren't bags used to group multiple items? I ask many times to have everything placed in one bag and I'm lucky if all they do is double-bag everything. I can't stand all the bags because it just amounts to more trash for me.

[Jonotastic]

Give me a break...no plastic bags and now maybe no paper bags because of trees! What's next, limiting how much meat we can eat, how many hours per week we can drive our cars, why don't they take over every industry, take all our choices away and breast feed us.

[18Montclair]

Originally Posted by Jonotastic

Give me a break...no plastic bags and now maybe no paper bags because of trees! What's next, limiting how much meat we can eat, how many hours per week we can drive our cars, why don't they take over every industry, take all our choices away and breast feed us.

LOL

What's the harm in taking your own bags to the store with you?

[Mach50]

Originally Posted by Jonotastic

Give me a break...no plastic bags and now maybe no paper bags because of trees! What's next, limiting how much meat we can eat, how many hours per week we can drive our cars, why don't they take over every industry, take all our choices away and breast feed us.

Check out the Northern Hawaiian Islands Trash problem to see where all our bags end up.
Howstuffworks "The Great Pacific Garbage Patch"



It is a different culture in the BayArea, people are much more conscious and I think this would be an easy transition. Most folks even here on the Peninsula bring their own bags to the store, it is really not that hard.

Originally Posted by 18Montclair

LOL

What's the harm in taking your own bags to the store with you?

Plus the bags I bring have stronger handles so I can carry more.

Again not a hard transition for SF or the BayArea IMO and an Earth conscious one as well.

[sav858]

Originally Posted by 18Montclair

LOL

What's the harm in taking your own bags to the store with you?

I can NEVER remember to bring those bags. I want to b/c I hate plastic bags and usually try to limit how many I have by using those self-check out machines at the grocery store and also refusing bags for small items but I can just never remember to bring them.

This ordinance doesn't seem that bad b/c it's not really "banning" bags, just making them offer an incentive which isn't too bad but seems a little much for the govt to force businesses to comply with fines and such. It's not something I would outright support but wouldn't be that against it either.

[Tanque Verde]

Support for these so called "save the environment/children projects" like the one mentioned in this thread can usually be traced to whatever industry will profit the most by the elimination of paper and plastic bags from grocery stores.

Take plastic grocery bags for example. The very first time I brought a load of groceries home in plastic bags, I stopped buying plastic trash can liners and started using the free plastic grocery bags for my trash can liners.
No rocket science there.

The question on this particular "save the environment/children"? Who profits at our expense when free paper bags are no longer available at the check out stand. Oh, and will the cost of our groceries go down a little bit, or not.

[clongirl]

Though I totally understand the anger about having the government impose this seemingly stupid idea...I will say that when I lived in Ireland, this was the norm. I was initially irritated that I always kept forgetting my bags and had to buy new ones. But honestly, after a while it became second nature and I still keep all of my bags in the car even now that I'm back living here.

I guess it seems about as traumatic as the whole smoking ban in bars..I honestly thought I'd go crazy at first (back when I smoked). Change takes a while and then it becomes the normal and over time nobody bats an eyelash over the new way, then people become happier (usually) that it is the way it is!

[Mach50]

Originally Posted by Tanque Verde

Support for these so called "save the environment/children projects" like the one mentioned in this thread can usually be traced to whatever industry will profit the most by the elimination of paper and plastic bags from grocery stores.

Take plastic grocery bags for example. The very first time I brought a load of groceries home in plastic bags, I stopped buying plastic trash can liners and started using the free plastic grocery bags for my trash can liners.
No rocket science there.

The question on this particular "save the environment/children"? Who profits at our expense when free paper bags are no longer available at the check out stand. Oh, and will the cost of our groceries go down a little bit, or not.

All good points, of which I am sure someone will definitely profit off of selling $5 grocery bags instead of giving out "free" bags. However, if it reduces the amount of trash and debris in landfills, also in our Oceans, if less species are killed because of our disregard for the environment, isn't it worth it?

Some stores offer credit right now (albeit just .15-.25c) for bringing in your own bags so in effect the price is going down already.

[Radical347]

Hmm, I don't think is going to help that much. (Nor is it really targeting paper bags.) While I certainly don't mind having a discount, I think an idea that would better encourage people to bring their own bags would be charge 5-10 cents per bag as some people do. IKEA did that - just 5 cents a bag and I read they reduced the number of bags they gave out by 92%.