The San Francisco Commission on the Environment unanimously approved a 17-cent fee for each plastic or paper bag. SF stores would be required to charge for shopping bags.

Before it goes into effect, the fee must go through the typical long bureaucratic process we endure to get beneficial laws passed. A private agency will be hired to analyze the impact on city’s budget, the environment, and on low-income people. If approved by the Board of Supervisors and the mayor it would take another 6 months before anything positive would happen. To repeat a phrase from history “Nero fiddles while Rome burns.”

I notice customers are especially wasteful in those stores where you bag your own items. I hope the commission mentions this indiscriminate use in their report.

God forbid we be denied that plastic bag at the supermarket only to add it to next week’s trash pick-up. This story didn’t mention where these discarded bags end up. Only a fraction end up in those recycling barrels placed inside just the supermarket.

My suggestion for SF residents is to start saving grocery bags now and chances are you’ll never have to pay this tax. In the meantime, we in other cities should take a hint. Maybe we too are far too wasteful with these bags. For over 2 years I have carried canvas tote bags with me to the grocery store. In non-grocery store I remind the clerk I have my own bag. Those times when I have only one item like in a hardware store just say “No bag please” and they seem to appreciate this. Canvas tote bags can be found in thrift shops for a buck and that’s less than the cost of 6 plastic bags of the future.

Why wait for the government to legislate behavior that’s good for the environment? It’s not a big deal to bring your own bag to the supermarket or least reuse the ones you saved from your last trip. Currently, my grocery store gives a 6-cent cash reward for using your own bag. But asides from that: isn’t our environment worth a little cleaner appearance?