The cheerful offer of “paper or plastic?” from grocery store checkout clerks will become a thing of the past in San Francisco, thanks to a Board of Supervisors’ vote last week that made it the first city in the nation to ban plastic grocery bags. Petroleum-based, they don’t decompose, are too thin to be re-used for anything more significant than picking up dog poop, harm marine life when they make their way into the ocean, and contribute a significant amount of litter. Even the shoppers who were carrying double-bagged items, when asked, supported the rule that will finally push them to use reusable bags.
Other countries are looking at us in the U.S., profligate consumers of disposable goods compared to the rest of the world, and asking why it’s taking us so long to do something about this? Umm … because we’re profligate consumers of disposable goods compared to the rest of the world.
While grocery chains have offered three cents credit for each reusable bag brought by a shopper, it’s not been enough to motivate people to convert to canvas or bags of other sturdy materials, or for some of us to organize ourselves well enough to put our reusable bags in the car and use them regularly when we go to the store. Having reusable canvas bags at checkout at nearly $5 a pop doesn’t make harried shoppers think twice about receiving free bags, especially in towns like Morgan Hill that allow them into the recycle bin, even though they aren’t recycled easily.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. consumes 38 billion plastic bags, wraps and sacks a year, and only 5 percent are recycled.
Meanwhile, some countries in the European Union have employed an opposite – and more effective – approach: charging for the plastic bags. In 2002, Ireland instituted the Irish Plastax, charging 25 cents for every one of the 1.2 billion plastic grocery bags, which was intended to curb consumers’ use. The program was a resounding success, and Irish consumers responded quickly to limit their payment of yet another tax. In the first year that the program was implemented, the number of grocery bags being used by the Irish fell from 1.2 billion to just 200 million, and it wasn’t because people were buying fewer groceries. When I was in Italy last summer, I took to reusing my first bag or just tucking things into my backpack to avoid the charges.
There are disposable plastic bags that are better alternatives. Made with a cornstarch base, they will decompose. However, grocers complain they cost five to eight cents each. Smaller, independent grocers say they support a change to a decomposable bag, but the cost is prohibitive. Buying clubs or co-ops can take care of that, but still, why not charge for them all?
It’s too bad they call it a tax; I often think of taxes as levied on top of the cost for goods or services, and something unavoidable. But the revenue raised doesn’t add to the profits of the grocers; it’s passed through to support clean up efforts or further recycling initiatives. A plastic bag is a wasteful purchase, but charging for them seems like a good idea me.
Supporters of a cleaner environment in Gilroy proposed in February a ban on polystyrene foam containers, among other environmental initiatives. But this was not one of them. It’d be an excellent addition with a huge impact if both Morgan Hill and Gilroy adopted such a move.
In the movie American Beauty, the drug dealing video-file trains his video camera on a plastic bag caught in the wind. Accompanied by lovely music in the soundtrack, the sight moves him to tears as he tries to communicate to the girl he loves its indescribable beauty.
After Hurricane Katrina, when the waters receded, the way they determined how high the waters rose was by the plastic bags left in the trees. In the real world, there’s nothing beautiful about them.
An important Gilroy resource in the quest for alternatives that contribute to a sustainable environment and are easily accessible to consumers is Integrity Express. Popular for their distribution of fair-trade coffee to places like St. Joseph Family Center, St. Louise Hospital, and other local businesses, Mike and Erin Monroe are also sources of a wide variety of goods, from recycled paper products to fairly-made soccer balls.
For more information, contact Mike at (408)234-6377 or e-mail him at [email protected] or [email protected]
Columnist Dina Campeau is a wife, mother of two teens and a resident of Morgan Hill. Her work for the last seven years has focused on affordable housing and homeless issues in Santa Clara County. Her column will be published each Friday. Reach her at [email protected].
