What Other Countries and Cities are Doing
“ The United States is far behind other parts of the world in addressing concerns about plastic bags. In places like South Africa, Zanzibar, Scandinavia and Uganda, the use of such bags has been reduced or eliminated by banning or taxing them, by charging for them in stores, by giving incentives to customers who provide their own bags and by selling inexpensive reusable bags made of recycled plastic or cloth.
By the end of the year the bags will be banned in Paris, and by 2010 in all of France. In Ireland, where the plastic bags are known as the national flag, they have cost 20 cents each, at the government’s direction, since 2002; the fee has been credited with cutting bag use more than 90 percent.
In Uganda plastic bags are banned entirely. Bans, restrictions or incentives to switch to reusable bags are in place in towns and cities in Australia, India, Pakistan, Taiwan, Canada and Britain. Various restrictions or charges are in place in Japan, Germany, New Zealand, Bangladesh and Italy. For about a decade Scandinavian countries have charged for bags, whether plastic or paper. Last March Ikea began charging 5 cents for plastic bags in its stores in the United States. ”
Burros, Marian. “Just the Thing to Carry Your Conscience In”, July 18, 2007. New York Times.
Solutions by Country
from Wikipedia.com
Australia
In Australia shoppers are now encouraged to buy bags called "green bags" which cost a few dollars, but can be reused many times. The bags are coloured depending on the company that sells them. Some "green bags" are insulated for the carrying of hot or cold items. Locally, the town of Coles Bay banned plastic shopping bags in April, 2003.
Bangladesh
Plastic shopping bags are banned in Bangladesh, where they are thought to causing flooding during monsoons by clogging drains.[Wikipedia]
Turkey
Plastic shopping bags have created major environmental problems throughout Turkey. Currently, Turkish people use on average 1.2 bags per day each, most of which end up not being disposed properly. The government has launched a feasability study into the movement towards envirobags however this is not due till late 2008.
Ireland
On March 4, 2002 the Republic of Ireland introduced a 15 cent levy on every plastic shopping bag. This led to a 95% reduction in use and increased use of reusable bags.[6] The money gathered by the levy was used to raise money for environmental initiatives. Many retailers in Ireland switched to supplying (untaxed) paper bags, or simply stopped supplying bags. Most supermarkets continued to supply plastic bags, subject to the tax. The charge was increased to 22 cents on July 1, 2007. [7]
France
Growing awareness of the ecological impact of plastic bags have led main mass retailers to force customers to buy reusable plastic or non-woven bags. This has been adopted by supermarkets (like Carrefour) - they manage out of that scheme to improve their image and save millions on the purchase of the former plastic bags. Nonfood related retailers (like Cloth) tend to prefer to switch to paper bags, allowing them to match the ecological demand & upgrade their image on two aspects: ecology & quality. In Paris, a ban on plastic bags will take effect in late 2007; a nationwide ban is scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2010.
Germany
Generally, most German supermarkets charge between 5 and 25 cents per single-use bag, depending on the type of bag. Most shops also offer cloth bags or sturdier, woven plastic bags for about €1, encouraging shoppers to re-use them. Many high-street retail shops will provide bags free of charge. Most people will re-use single-use shopping bags, i.e. for collecting deposit bottles or using them as bin liners.
Japan
Almost any store you visit in Japan, from convenience stores to street vendors, will also net you a free plastic bag for your purchase. Although there are some supermarkets (like Kyoto Co-op) which charge for plastic bags, this is by no means the norm. Many supermarkets (like Izumiya) will give you extra points on your point-card if you bring your own bag[Wikipedia].
New Zealand
In recent years cloth bags have been promoted and sold by some supermarkets as an alternative to plastic bags. In August 2006 the Collingwood community in Golden Bay declared itself shopping bag free by a group of local residents who promoted the idea. In early 2007 a nationwide campaign was kicked off with the aim of introducing a shopping bag levy similar to Ireland's.[8]
South Africa
Mohammed Valli Moosa, the Environment and Tourism Minister of South Africa, jokingly named them the "national flower" of that country, and worked to introduce a minimum legal thickness of 30 micrometres to increase their cost, reusability, and recyclability. They may not be legally given away to shoppers, and must instead be sold, however this rule is not always enforced strictly. [Wikipedia] The South African government collects a 3cents per shopping bag environmental levy on all shopping bags.
Taiwan
Plastic shopping bags are taxed in Taiwan.[Wikipedia]
United Kingdom
Growing awareness in the UK of the problems caused by indiscriminate use of plastic bags is encouraging some large retailers to reward customers who bring their own bags or who reuse or recycle existing bags. This has been adopted by Tesco, who call it the 'Green Bag Scheme'. This 
scheme gives the customer a "Green Clubcard Point" (see Tesco Clubcard), which has the monetaryvalue of 1p, for every bag they reuse (or indeed if they use any bag that isn't taken from the Tesco bag holders, such as a backpack they own).[9]
Retailers in Modbury have voluntarily eliminated usage of plastic bags, the first town in the country to do so. The Saffron Walden branch of Waitrose haseliminated free carriers completely, only supplying bags for life, with other branches within the chain trialling individual "green tills" where no free bags are supplied. Prior to its closure in July 2007, Kwik Save charged 5 pence for customers to use their plastic bags, to encourage people to take less.
A campaign called morsbags.com has started in the UK and is spreading around the world. It involves making shopping bags out of recycled, unwanted material and handing them out for free. It is known as 'sociable guerilla bagging'.
United States
Plastic bags largely displaced paper bags as the most common type of shopping bag during the late 1980s and early 1990s. There has been no broad government action against the litter problem, although some local governments have enacted ordinances, and many stores allow customers to return the bags for recycling. Empty bags carried on the wind are popularly known as "urban tumbleweed."
On March 27, 2007, the City and County of San Francisco became the first city to ban common plastic shopping bags. Starting July 2007, all large supermarkets in the state of California will be required, by law, to take back and recycle plastic shopping bags.[10]
Portland, Oregon is next to ban plastic bags according to Thanh Tan of news Channel KATU. See the news video. Currently Trellis Earth Products of Portland Oregon is one of the only manufacturers of corn based Bio bags.
Plastic shopping bags are banned in at least 30 villages and towns in Alaska, including the towns of Emmonak, Galena, and Kotlik.[11]
Ikea, the home furnishings retailer, imposes its own charge for plastic shopping bags in the US — charging $0.05 to any customer who wants a plastic sack.[12] A similar charge has been in place since spring 2006 at Ikea stores in the UK, and the company says it has reduced use of bags in UK stores by 95 percent. Ikea hopes the 5-cent fee in the U.S. cuts bag use in half, from 70 million bags a year to 35 million.[Wikipedia]
Zanzibar
The island of Zanzibar banned the import and use of plastic shopping bags in November, 2006. The bags had been responsible for a significant litter problem, and government officials enacted the ban to protect tourism, an economic mainstay for the island.[13].
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The San Francisco Ban
Click Here to See the San Francisco Ordinance
S.F. FIRST CITY TO BAN PLASTIC SHOPPING BAGS
Supermarkets and chain pharmacies will have to use recyclable or compostable sacks
Charlie Goodyear, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Paper or plastic? Not anymore in San Francisco.
The city's Board of Supervisors approved groundbreaking legislation Tuesday to outlaw plastic checkout bags at large supermarkets in about six months and large chain pharmacies in about a year.
The ordinance, sponsored by Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, is the first such law in any city in the United States and has been drawing global scrutiny this week.
"I am astounded and surprised by the worldwide attention," Mirkarimi said. "Hopefully, other cities and other states will follow suit."
Fifty years ago, plastic bags -- starting first with the sandwich bag -- were seen in the United States as a more sanitary and environmentally friendly alternative to the deforesting paper bag. Now an estimated 180 million plastic bags are distributed to shoppers each year in San Francisco. Made of filmy plastic, they are hard to recycle and easily blow into trees and waterways, where they are blamed for killing marine life. They also occupy much-needed landfill space.
Two years ago, San Francisco officials considered imposing a 17-cent tax on petroleum-based plastic bags before reaching a deal with the California Grocers Association. The agreement called for large supermarkets to reduce by 10 million the number of bags given to shoppers in 2006. The grocers association said it cut back by 7.6 million, but city officials called that figure unreliable and unverifiable because of poor data supplied by markets.
The dispute led to a renewed interest in outlawing the standard plastic bag, which Mirkarimi said Tuesday was a "relic of the past." Under the legislation, which passed 10-1 in the first of two votes, large markets and pharmacies will have the option of using compostable bags made of corn starch or bags made of recyclable paper. San Francisco will join a number of countries, such as Ireland, that already have outlawed plastic bags or have levied a tax on them. Final passage of the legislation is expected at the board's next scheduled meeting, and the mayor is expected to sign it.
The grocers association has warned that the new law will lead to higher prices for San Francisco shoppers.
"We're disappointed that the Board of Supervisors is going down this path," said Kristin Power, the association's vice president for government relations. "It will frustrate recycling efforts and will increase both consumer and retailer costs. There's also a real concern about the availability and quality of compostable bags."
Power said most of the group's members operating in San Francisco are likely to switch to paper bags "simply because of the affordability and availability issues."
Mirkarimi's legislation is one in a string of environmentally sensitive measures -- such as outlawing Styrofoam food containers and encouraging clean-fuel construction vehicles at city job sites -- adopted by the city in recent months.
"It's really exciting," Jared Blumenfeld, director of the city's Department of the Environment, said after the vote on Tuesday. "We're thrilled. It's been a long time in the making."
Blumenfeld said it takes 430,000 gallons of oil to manufacture 100 million bags. Compostable bags can be recycled in the city's green garbage bins and will make it more convenient for residents to recycle food scraps, he said.
Recycling of paper bags also is far more active today than it was when the plastic bag was first introduced to U.S. consumers.
The lone dissenting voice in the board chamber on Tuesday was Supervisor Ed Jew, who noted that 95,000 small businesses in San Francisco will continue to use plastic bags. Jew, who in his third month in office has taken to critiquing his colleagues for being too quick to burden residents and businesses with new mandates, complained that Mirkarimi's legislation has taken too much of the board's time.
"We need to move on to address the larger issues in San Francisco," Jew said shortly before he voted against the ordinance.
Supervisor Michela Alioto-Pier, who introduced amendments this month that will subject pharmacy chains to the legislation, said many large businesses in San Francisco already participate in recycling programs.
"The target of this legislation is the bags themselves and improving the environment," she said.
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American Cities Looking at Bans
San Francisco, CA
New Haven, CT
New York City, NY
Boston, MA
Baltimore, MD
Oakland, CA
Portland, OR
Santa Monica, CA
Steamboat Springs, CO
Madison, CT
Guilford, CT
Annapolis, MD
Philadelphia, PA
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