I always try to take my own bag, stores give you a nickle back if you have your, that store is Fred Myer’s, Safeway gives you three cents back if you use your own bag, Trader Joe’s in Portland Oregon if you use your own bag you are entitled to enter a contest to win $25.00 in groceries.

What is the big deal about plastic bags maybe they are convient but let loose they are not good for birds, and San Francisco is srounded by water and those bags float for miles and they surely end up on the bay or ocean.

I believe Hong Kong has a ban on plastic bags.

People have gotten spoiled since the post world war II era.

You can also use your paper bags over and over but I would always bring my own bag if they stopped plastic bags, but I was raised during a different era.

All people have to do is talk to their grandparents to know about shopping.

Back in the 19th century pbobably all shoping was done with your own container, just look at Little House on the Prarie.

Margaret from Vancouver, Washington

When you stop to think that supermarkets in America are largely pushers of chemicals, fat and sugar, and that people largely fill their larders with stuff they shouldn’t bring into their houses, the plastic bag problem would go away, largely, if there weren’t so much crap shoved at us by manfacturers, processors and Madison Ave.  Used to be Corn Flakes, Cheerios and Wheaties in the cereal isle. Now it takes you ten minutes to get through the cereal.   
    Consider the waste in packaging. It’s huge business in Imerika. 
    The Big Three and Bush suck us into buying gas guzzlers one year and tell us to stop using so much gasoline the next.  We’re such idiots.  Suck us in; blow us out.  And of course, dogooders buy into it without question.
Mostly everything we use, we use not because we need it but because Madison Ave. convinced us we need it.  The world got along fine without cell phones a few short years ago and now few people feel they can do without them, yakking away while they’re “driving” their gas-guzzlers or sitting in the park.  Now cell phones have been made obsolete by e-phones. If lack of communication is a problem, then this country no longer has that problem.  When you go to trade in your outdated six-month-old cell phone, be sure to take along a cloth bag so you have something to carry your new one home in.  And don’t worry for a second that they suck you in for another two year contract.  Doesn’t matter.  This is Imerika.  Take all the energy used by all the fat/sugar/chemical food processors, all the auto-related industries, all the packaging firms, all the cell-phone industries and used by all the employees in those industries, add them together and append a plastic bag and it doesn’t make much difference.  Idiots, such idiots!  All of us.  Gawd Bless Imerika and San Francisco, too.  They’re such forward thinkers out there. And don’t give me that, “Well, we all have to start somewhere crap.”

Hopefully someone better informed will inform the mayer and the rest of the sheeple (not a typo) in San Fran - Paper bags (and so called biodegradable bags as well) do not degrade in modern landfills (due to lack of air/water, etc.).  Paper weighs more and takes up more space.  Much more importantly, paper generation, specially recycled & bleached paper, generates dioxin (one of the most toxic substances known to man) and uses a lot more energy (than plastic bag generation).  Plastic bags can be reused many more times (and stay cleaner) than paper bags.  For additional information, see: 

http://www.epa.gov/region1/communities/shopbags.html

This is almost as dumb as using fossil fuel (at 20% efficiency) to generate electricity to power electric cars and believing that you are helping the environment!

Only the most insulated, convenience addicted, and myopic people could find fault in this move. Can the most intelligent and creative species on Earth not find a better way to get their groceries from store to home?

hooray for san francisco!  i was so moved by this action that i wrote to mayor newsom and then to antonio villaraigosa, mayor of los angeles, to advocate the same ban.

i’m in no way affiliated with this site, but i recommend reusable bags:  http://www.reusablebags.com/

This is what leadership looks like!  Kudos to the people and elected officials of San Fran who made this happen. Of course you will have Republicans and some mainstream Dems crying foul.  These people are always willing to stand up for their right to pollute and plunder.

After World War II people used bags brought from home and they also took their own baskets to the market.

These bags blow around the city streets and get tangled in trees, in some cities there is no lid on the trash baskets and the contents get blown around.

The ban of plastic will definately help wildlife, especially the plastic around 6 packs of soda.  The overpackaging of frozen tv dinners cannot all be recycled, there is so much to be recycled that it can not all be recycled, it is time to make life simple.

Make life simple and keep wildlife safe from chocking on plastic.

The plastic around soda cans can also hurt wildlife.

Margaret from Vancouver, Washington