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  4. San Francisco is First to Ban Plastic Bags "Witches' Knickers"

San Francisco is First to Ban Plastic Bags "Witches' Knickers"

Date: April 2, 2007

Source: News Room

The City of San Francisco passed legislation to ban the use of plastic bags in grocery stores and large chain pharmacies. The law, which is to go into effect in six months to a year, states that any large grocer or pharmacy with more than five locations in the city must issue only bags made of recycled paper, disposable plastic or a free canvas bag.

For years the plastic bags, nicknamed "Witches' Knickers" for getting caught in the trees, have been a target of derision since they consume landfill space taking hundreds of years to decompose and increase demand for oil, and are rarely recycled. Furthermore, the bags eventually break down into tiny particles that contaminate soil and waterways and kill marine animals. Municipalities spend millions of dollars cleaning bags from streets, recycling systems and trees. In South Africa, wind-blown bags are jokingly called the national flower because they sprout everywhere. In the US, we use 100 billion bags a year.

Meanwhile, critics of the ban point to EPA data that show that paper bags generate 70% more air pollutants and 50 times more water pollutants than do plastic bags. They require four times as much energy to be produced and 85 times as much energy to be recycled. Moreover, paper takes up to nine times as much space in landfills and does not break down there at a substantially faster rate than does plastic.

San Francisco joins South Africa, Taiwan, and Bangladesh whom have already adopted similar measures.

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