In April 2007, the mayor of San Francisco banned the plastic bags, at least the distribution of non-biodegradable plastic bags. Large supermarkets were given 6 months to comply, and chain pharmacies have until 2008 to make the change. A ban may seem extreme, but it has brought a lot of attention to issue of plastic bags and their use in the way we shop.
I am not certain of who actually counts them all, but some figures I have read estimate that the US distributes 100 billion plastic bags per year, 19 billion of those in California. That's a lot of counting.
Some reasons some citizens are concerned with this number of plastic bags distributed include: the bags do not biodegrade; many of the bags end up in the ocean and harm marine life; plastic bags are made with oil - 12 million barrels for an annual US consumption; and many bags litter the roadsides and trees.
Numerous other city leaders in the US are discussing a ban, including Boston, Baltimore, Oakland, Portland, Santa Monica, Steamboat Springs, and Annapolis.
Other places around the work have instituted plastic bag takes or bans to decrease their reliance on the pesky bags. Ireland, where the plastic bag was refered to as their national flag, started a Plastax in 2002, and has reduced the distribution of plastic bags by 90%. South Africa's minister of Environment and Tourism named the plastic bag their national flower, collects 3 cents for every bag distributed. Bangladesh banned plastic bags because littered bags were blamed for blocking drains and causing floods. Taiwan and Zanzibar banned plastic bags to try to curb the litter problem of used bags.
Growing in popularity is the use of resuable shopping bags, and not just in places that have instituted a ban.
JP Monkey
www.jpmonkey.com
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