The future: not plastics

Those ubiquitous plastic grocery bags (and, uh, newspaper wrappers) -- they were considered a boon to all mankind not so long ago, but could they now be destined for the biodegradable scrap heap of history?

On Tuesday, San Francisco became the first American city to require big supermarkets and drug stores to give customers a choice far more nuanced than "Paper or plastic?" Within a year, there will be three choices: bags made of paper that can be recycled; plastic that breaks down into compost; or reusable cloth bags. That certainly will be a mouthful for San Francisco check-out personnel.

Those petroleum-based polyurethane bags -- the ones commonly used in most stores and more commonly seen blowing along roadways -- will no longer be an option. They're recyclable -- and you and I do it religiously -- but we're pretty much alone. It's estimated that a mere 1 percent of the 500 trillion plastic bags floating around out there get recycled. So if people can't be counted on to be responsible citizens, guvmint steps in.

Not everybody likes it

Big supermarket chains argued against the ban because plastic bags made of corn by-products are relatively new, expensive and untested, The Associated Press reported. And if biodegradable plastic bags can't be recycled in the same way regular plastic bags are, and if consumers lump the two together, the entire recycle batch is unusable, they warn. Some chains said they might offer only paper bags at check-out, The Los Angeles Times says. That ticks off environmentalists, because it means more dead trees. They see the new breed of plastic bag as a way out of the no-win paper-or-plastic dilemma.

The grim reality

Charles Kalish, FogCityJournal.com, an online San Francisco news organization:

"The truth is, plastic bags are a worldwide environmental disaster. The material is not bio-degradable. It is photo-degradable, meaning it simply breaks up into smaller and smaller parts. Bangladesh, one of the poorest countries on the planet, has banned them. Their sewers were blocked up by millions of plastic bags that contributed to the enormous devastation caused by recent floods. In South Africa, once one of the most beautiful countries on earth, plastic bags are referred to as the "national flower." There are two floating islands of plastic bags in the Pacific Ocean, each the size of Texas.

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"Plastic bags made from petroleum derivatives cannot be digested in landfills. Actually that's not completely true. Every species from plankton to whale is mistaking plastic particulates for food, and eating them. It's part of the ocean's food chain now. This means that when we eat seafood, we are running the risk of ingesting photo-degraded plastic. And if that weren't bad enough, the ocean plastic has been found to attract PCBs. So we're eating PCBs as well. Sea turtles eat the plastic and die. Sea birds get strangled by plastic bags."

We're behind on this

The ban is part of a growing international movement. Ireland imposed a tax of about 20 cents for each plastic bag in 2002. The result: a 90 percent drop in bag use. In Australia, about 90 percent of retailers have signed up with the government's voluntary program to reduce plastic bags. Taiwan made restaurants and supermarkets charge for plastic products, and usage dropped 69 percent.

The people speak

Comments from fark.com and sfgate.com, Web site of the San Francisco Chronicle:

"Good luck picking up dog poop with a paper bag."

"The next time an SF dog owner picks up after his or her dog will be the first."

"Think about it. Why waste SO MUCH PLASTIC AND PAPER when you can just buy 10 bags for life for 40 dollars?"

"No plastic bags? What are people into erotic asphyxiation going to put over their heads?"

"How about require reusable bags made out of hemp, man!"

"Props to SanFran.

"I went with plastic bags to Hell-Mart. Handed 'em to the cashier. She asked why. I suggested she reuse them instead of using new ones. Instead, she took them, trashed them and gave me new ones."

"It annoys me when the bagger puts every danged item in a separate bag. I don't need 15 bags for 15 items!"

"I worked in a market, and customers complained that the bags were too heavy."

"Trader Joe's gives out paper bags without asking -- why can't all stores?"

"Does it feel good to [put a modest amount of water] on a raging forest fire? That's what you're doing with your ban. The Chinese ship that just pulled into your harbor? A few hours ago, it dumped several tons of garbage, oil and sewage. Your Prius and organic squash do nothing when you consider we set off nukes, have spread a coating of dust over the Middle East and burn millions of gallons of gas a day."

"Paper or Plastic? At check-out they should ask: 'Rain Forest De-Forestation Or Global Warming?' "

"In Germany they do not give you a bag, your groceries are just passed to you at the end of the conveyor. If we did the same, it'd only take me five or six trips before I was trained."