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San Francisco and its 100 million fewer plastic bags

Adapted from http://www.portalasporta.it

In 2007, San Francisco has banned plastic bags the largest department store chains and food and pharmacy chains.

Now the city administration is considering extend the ban to all retailers, including bookstores, clothing stores and department stores and that would include all the possible formats and sizes of plastic bags.

Ross Mirkarimi, a member of the Supervisory Committee the city of San Francisco and author of Act of 2007 formally submitted a proposal to that effect to the Commission in early August.

Even the State of California is currently the ' legislative process of a bill, the' Assembly Bill 1998, supported by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger , which would ban plastic bags in all the state of California since 2012 with a tax of 5 cents for the paper bag provided.

The administration of San Francisco is not going to wait for developments of this bill because it is certain that the measures will be milder and less extensive than objectives to be achieved in a city . In San Francisco

the current law requires large supermarkets and chain drugstores to provide customers only compostable bioplastic bags, paper bags, recyclable and reusable bags.

The new legislation, if passed, would come into force March 1, 2011. In addition to apply to all sectors of retail trade expected as new charged five cents for disposable paper bag . Excluded from the measure intermediate bags for packing and packaging of food products but also, for example, plastic bags used by dry cleaners to protect clothing. According

Mark Westlund, spokesman for the Department for Environment, San Francisco, were 100 million plastic bags that were spared the environment three-year ban.

If the measure passed San Francisco would be the first city in California to follow the example of towns in the counties of Currituck, Dare, Hyde belonging to that region of the Outer Banks in North Carolina . Also here is the extension of a first measure limited to a few chains that will be effective from October 1, 2010.

Some shops have already moved to San Francisco from 2007 to paper bags. Stay at the local level, but not limited to, the accusation paper bags , even by the plastics industry, which emphasizes at every opportunity as even these were not without impact to the environment.

Compared to the solution in the plastic manufacturing paper bags require increased consumption of water, 70% more power and 50% of emissions of greenhouse gases caused most of the bag during his lifetime. Obviously

the plastics industry points out the weaknesses of the alternative paper and minimizes those related to the solution in plastic, non-biodegradable material, the dispersion in the environment with chemical pollution and its damages including economic ones , the ridiculous rates of recycling, the use of oil which is a source of energy in decline, and so on.

For more information read the environmental impact assessment referred to the plastic bag, paper and reusable material.