Seldom recycled, plastic grocery bags face bans in S.F.
In eliminating petroleum-based bags, San Francisco city leaders hope that retailers will adopt biodegradable ones.
from the March 29, 2007 edition
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Box-stores like IKEA, restaurants, and mom-and-pop marts won't be affected by the San Francisco ordinance – only the large grocers and pharmacies, which are estimated to hand out more than 90 percent of the city's bags. Those affected by the law, expected to be implemented seven months from now, are still weighing their options, says Dave Heylen, a spokesman for the California Grocers Association.
"If you look at the costs [of compostable bags] and [if] they are as high as what we believe they are going to be, I think it will be a safe assumption to say that retailers will be more inclined to go back to a paper bag, which [costs] considerably less," says Mr. Heylen.
He says initial cost estimates for compostable bags run five to 10 cents per bag, considerably more than traditional plastic bags, which cost a couple of cents each. The price of corn, the raw material for compostable bags, has risen with rising demand for ethanol.
Price concerns are echoed by the lone dissenter in Tuesday's 10-1 vote, Supervisor Ed Jew. "It is a regressive tax," he says. "This will probably expand to small businesses, and that's really going to be an economic hardship that will be passed on to consumers."
Supporters, including chief sponsor Ross Mirkarimi, say that the ordinance focuses on large businesses with the expectation that, as bulk purchasers, they will drive down costs for those bags.
Beyond cost considerations, critics decry the turn away from current recycling efforts. Heylen says the biodegradable bags, if inadvertently placed in store-front recycling bins mandated by the state for petroleum-based bags, will gunk up the recycled material.
But Jared Blumenfeld, director of San Francisco's Department of the Environment, says there isn't anything to gunk up.
"After 10 years, the recycling rate for plastic bags in San Francisco – which is pointed to as a model nationwide – is 1 percent, he says. "So 99 percent failure."
By switching to the compostable bags, Mr. Blumenfeld says the city will be conserving 430,000 gallons of oil used to make traditional bags – the equivalent of keeping 140,000 cars off the street for a day.
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