San Francisco’s city council voted Tuesday (March 27, 2007) to become the first U.S. city to ban plastic bags from large supermarkets to help promote recycling. Under the legislation approved by the city’s Board of Supervisors, large supermarkets and drugstores will not be allowed to offer plastic bags made from petroleum products starting in six months. All of this is being done to reduce the amount of plastic bags being consumed and ending up in our landfills and to encourage recycling. Since the city estimates that they use 181 million grocery bags every year this move represents a huge environmental movement. Thumbs up San Francisco!!
Perhaps now is the time to be proactive yourself and stop using plastic bags. It is really not that hard to convert to reusable bags, especially when there are so many stylish options out there. When I made the move to reusable grocery bags I decided to buy a dozen sturdy canvas totes and then I used iron on transfers to decorate the bags with cool environmental graphics. There are also some great options available at one of my favorite online stores…ReusableBags. Just check out the market basket pictured here…gorgeous AND eco-friendly.
Lets everyone go cut down some trees!!!
I don’t see the problem with plastic bags under the ground. Thats where the material to make the bag came from in the first place and the bags degrade alot faster that 1000 years. Has anyone buried a plastic bag and then dug it up 1000 years later. Stupid!
Jeffrey,
I assume you have some scientific evidence to share that shows that plastic bags biodegrade faster? Plastic bags add to an already overwhelming issue of too much landfill waste.
And the solution is not to use paper but to use reusable cloth bags. Buy 10-20 and use them for the next 10 years or more. Easy…and no contrubutions to the waste stream AND no trees being cut down.