S.F. Gets Second Chance to Cut Down on Plastic Bags

by Ania Moniuszko, 2007-03-14

Two years ago, San Francisco had a chance to significantly impact the amount of garbage we produce while drastically reducing the costs of recycling and garbage disposal – by imposing a 17-cent fee on each plastic bag distributed at large grocery stores. The legislation also would have improved the cleanliness of our city and reduced the pollution in our bay.

The San Francisco Commission on the Environment unanimously approved it. The shopping bag fee—modeled after legislation in other countries that successfully reduced bag consumption and promoted reuse—would have been the first of its kind in the United States. But the plastic bag industry killed it, with Mayor Newsom’s help. Now San Francisco has another chance to lead again.

In 2005, the plastics bag lobby spent $700,000 for a website and lobbying efforts in San Francisco to fight the measure. That November, Mayor Newsom struck a deal with the grocery stores and the Plastic Counsel – where they agreed to voluntarily curb the use of plastic bags and increase recycling rates for a trial period of one year.

Then in 2006 the industry put together state legislation that preempts local governments from contemplating bag fees like the one considered in San Francisco. Sold as an effort to increase plastic bag recycling across California, it was like a Trojan horse that tied the hands of local government from pursuing any actions imposing levies, fees, or restrictions on plastic shopping bags. In essence, it restricts California from reducing waste and pollution, while protecting profits of the bag manufacturers.

The plastic bag manufacturers provide backing to powerful business lobbies. For example, the Progressive Bag Alliance (PBA) is composed of the five largest bag producers in California. Their voluntary promotion of plastic bag recycling shows that manufacturers are willing to reduce their own sales in order to preserve their market. According to Laurie Hansen of PBA, “they'd rather have fewer bags used and still be able to sell them.” PBA worked hard behind the scenes in 2005 to ensure a bag fee was not imposed in San Francisco, fearing the idea would spread to other California cities.

If the producers of these plastics would take the burden of its disposal, we would live in a different world. Instead, city governments are burdened with the waste these companies (and we) produce.
Over 19 billion disposable plastic bags are generated in California producing 147,000 tons of waste. The free shopping bag has caused a crisis in our waste disposal process.

For a small city like San Francisco, we generate tons of waste. Here is how the plastic bags break down. One million plastic bags per year. One ton of plastic bags = 11 barrels of oil. Production of these bags generate 13 million pounds of CO2. About 950 tons of plastic enters the waste stream. 99% of our plastic bags go to landfill, and only 1% is recycled.

Now our city is taking action to reduce plastic bags. The new legislation, sponsored by Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, is a novel idea to make all plastic bags distributed at large grocery stores and pharmacies compostable. These compostable bags will go to the green cart along with our food scraps – improving composting participation by our residents.

San Francisco has the largest and most successful composting program in the nation. 300 tons of food scraps are composted every day. Even with such a successful program, we have only a 67% recycling rate. San Francisco would reach 78% if all the food and all compostable materials were put into our green bins. Jared Blumenfeld, Director of the San Francisco Department of the Environment, says “the goal is to reach 75% recycling by 2010. This can only be achieved by greater participation in the food composting program.”

Compostable plastic bags will make it easier for all San Francisco residents to compost. These bags will drive participation among reluctant residents who are not participating in the program due to the “ickiness” factor of composting.

By collecting the bags in the green bin, we automatically create a free ‘recycling’ program for the bags. This in itself will save San Francisco the 17 cents per bag that we currently pay to disposed of these bags. Under the new legislation, each bag will have to clearly state that it’s a recyclable plastic bag and compatible with the SF composting program.

The plastics lobby is not supporting this initiative, stating that a voluntary reduction and a recycling program is better. As they have shown in 2006, voluntary reduction simply will not happen. As for the bag recycling program, it does not make economic sense for the city.

San Francisco produces 1000 tons of plastic bags each year. To collect the bags costs about $4,000 per pound. That pound of plastic would sell for $110. (In comparison, recycling aluminum costs $300 per ton and the income from that ton is $400.) To recycle plastic bags the city residents would have to pay $2 million per year.

I think we can find better uses for that money. I don’t think that the tax payers would want to pay for this program. It’s much easier to just bring your own bag.

So by now I’m sure you’ll never use a plastic bag, but what about the paper bags? I was surprised that the Rain Forest Action Network does not support the legislation as they did in 2005. As it turns out this new legislation only requires that 40% of the paper bag content be from recycled materials. It is natural to assume that most stores will convert to paper-only distribution, since currently the cost of compostable plastic bag is nearly double that of a paper bag.

Already some stores such as Rainbow Grocery are distributing paper bags rather than plastic. But paper bags have their own issues. We cut down 14 million trees annually in the US for paper bag consumption. Paper bags production creates more waste from energy usage, air pollution, and water use.

Protecting our environment by taking legislative action against plastic bags consumption is not radical. This strategy has abeen successful in many coutries, such as Ireland, France, Australia, Taiwan, India, and South Africa. I hope that San Francisco will set an example here in the United States.

Right now, there’s reason for concern because last Thursday the vote on this legislation was again postponed to the next Board of Supervisors meeting. The delay was due to Supervisor Michela Alioto-Pier wanting to include large pharmacies in this legislation. Let’s hope this delay does not again create an opportunity for the plastics lobby to use their influence and stop San Francisco’s initiative.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Ania Moniuszko urges readers to use cloth shopping bags, and to contact Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi and state your support for his new legislation. She runs a tiny one-woman hobby business that makes reusable shopping bags in San Francisco.

For more information on how serious this issue is, see the short films “Out Synthetic Sea” and “The Synthetic Sea Story,” which show the explosive increase of plastic debris in our ocean. Click here to order a copy.