Many people believe that if plastic bags are banned, people will switch to reusable bags. They are wrong.
In 2007, the City of San Francisco passed an ordinance banning non-compostable plastic carryout bags in supermarkets and grocery stores with more than $2 million in annual sales and chain pharmacies The ordinance requires the use of paper bags, compostable plastic bags, or reusable bags.
To determine the impact of the ordinance, Robert Lilenfeld, President of The Cygnus Group and Editor of The ULS Report, traveled to San Francisco to observe store and customer bag usage and activity. A total of 25 retail stores were visited from September 14 to 17, 2008. Stores were walked through, store personnel were questioned, checkout activities were observed, and customers' bagging preferences were reviewed.
He found that all food chains affected by the ordinance had switched to paper bags only.
He also found that "very few people" brought reusable bags to the store -- no more than in other cities.
Lillenfeld concluded as follows:
If reducing environmental impact is the objective of the Ordinance, results to date do not indicate it will be successful. First, little use of reusable bags was observed. Second, the replacement of plastic by paper and the return to double bagging may actually increase environmental impact, as many peer reviewed lifecycle studies indicate that paper bags use more energy, produce more waste, and generate more greenhouse gas emissions than do plastic bags.
Click here for the full ULS survey report.
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