San Fransisco bans petroleum-based plastic bags

[Mathematician]

SAN FRANCISCO - San Francisco's city council voted today to become the first US city to ban plastic bags from large supermarkets to help promote recycling.

Under the legislation approved by the city's Board of Supervisors, large supermarkets and drugstores will not be allowed to offer plastic bags made from petroleum products starting in six months.

"Many (foreign) cities and nations have already implemented very similar legislation," said Ross Mirkarimi, the city legislator who championed the new law. "It's astounding that San Francisco would be the first US city to follow suit."

"I am hopeful that other US cities will also adopt similar legislation," he said. "Why wait for the federal government to enact legislation that gets to the core of this problem when local governments can just step up to the plate?"

[...]

Mirkarimi said the ban would save 1,703,250 litres of oil a year and remove the need to send 1423 tonnes of debris now sent annually to land fills. The new rules would however allow recyclable plastic bags which are not widely used today.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10431325

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Cool.