SF Supes Vote to Ban Plastic Bags in Stores

Published: April 2007

Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi.

Our Executive Director, Linda Hunter, sat down with Supervisor Mirkarimi to discuss his seminal legislation banning plastic bags in San Francisco.

LH: Congratulations, Supervisor Mirkarimi, on the passage of this wonderful new law.   Can you give us a short history of the effort to make this legislation law?

RM: The idea had been percolating among disparate groups that I've been working with over the years.  When I was elected as District 5 Supervisor in 2005, I sought to advance a similar version of this legislation. The City entered into an agreement with the supermarket industry in 2006 to institute a voluntary effort to reduce the use of plastic shopping bags by 10 million bags per year. Not only did the agreement fail, but the California Grocer Industry disingenuously engineered the passage of legislation in Sacramento designed to prohibit California cities from instituting a bag tax as well as impeding cities from requesting "bag data" (inventory is treated with high level intel).

The constellation was set - we either continue with the impotent voluntary arrangement or do what we had contemplated nearly 18 months earlier. In cooperation with myriad environmental and public policy groups and the SF Dept. on the Environment, I pulled the trigger by introducing this version of the legislation, passed by the Board of Supervisors 10-1.  The mayor has indicated that he will sign the new law, and with that last step, the ban will become law.

LH: How was the Department of the Environment involved?

RM: The Department of the Environment contributed excellent work toward this issue. I found them very helpful in ascertaining and disseminating the hard data that became an essential part for our law forward. The City and County of San Francisco has adopted citywide goals of 75% landfill diversion by 2010 and zero waste by 2020 and the Department of the Environment is convinced that the use of compostable bags will encourage people to use their green bins more often. The department also can be fun to work with.

LH:   What do you hope this new law will accomplish?

RM: From a practical perspective, the law will substantially reduce the amount of plastic being thrown away and ending up in landfill, which itself is an unsustainable process and one which all environmentalists hope to reduce (1400 tons of bags per year in our landfill).  Also, there is practical benefit to the fact that petroleum will not have to be used to create these bags, as this will help cut our reliance on non-sustainable fuels. Perhaps more important than the practical issues are the broad political and social benefits which we expect to follow from the new law. Simply put, when the law is implemented there will be a broad, Citywide exposure to these critical issues. Some stores will introduce compostable plastic-style bags, which will in turn enable easy recycling of food scraps, which are a large portion of what ends up in landfill. Other stores will offer only paper bags, but all stores will begin to encourage customers to start bringing their own re-usable bags of canvass and other materials. As people become aware of, and start to sign on to, the possibility of non-disposable bags it may raise consciousness about disposability in general and lead to broader environmental awareness.

LH: Whom will this new law affect?

RM: The businesses directly included in the law are grocery stores with at least $2,000,000 in yearly gross sales and chain pharmacies, such as Walgreens and Rite Aid. This law will impact approximately 105 businesses.  I plan to move on secondary legislation or trailing law aimed at additional retailers.

LH: Do you have any other "green" legislation in the works?

RM Yes: 1) Creating the first Peak Oil Task Force - readying SF for the inevitability of oil depletion and prohibitive access; 2) Implementation of Community Choice Aggregation - mini version of public power allowing San Francisco to aggregate its renewable energy portfolio at a much higher demand than waiting to see PG&E do their part - I want to see SF get into the energy business; 3) A rebate system designed to dissuade plastic bag use for cloth bags...among other pieces of legislation.