Comments on: San Francisco may charge for grocery bags

By: Deanna

Deanna — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 17:26:33 +0000

I lived in Africa for 3 years and they also get charged for bags. People have less money over there than here, as you can imagine, and it worked perfectly. People knew to bring their own bags to the store and if they had to pay they would use that bag until it literally fell apart. The reason over there was for less trash, could you imagine if bags were free? The amount of trash already that litters Africa is outstanding, why add to that? Here I think its a great idea. We really need to cut down on waste and this is a great way to start.

By: Martin

Martin — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 20:43:29 +0000

Europe has been doing this for years. It makes great sense. charge $5 per bag, then watch how many bags we save. Everyone would and should bring there own. Isn’t that the least we can do? The US govt is so far behind. The people have make this happen. One person can change this, you can turn things around.

By: Fred

Fred — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 06:32:17 +0000

What’s free, and what’s not free, is often arbitrary, and it’s subject to change. Free parking/pay parking? Free to get a phone call, but pay to make a phone call? All these are done differently in different places. Shaking it up a bit is just fine. Fundamentally it will all settle out, and we’ll laugh at those people who give away bags for free.

By: James Bond

James Bond — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 05:47:55 +0000

I think that grocery bags should be free. It’s ridiculous to charge customers for grocery bags. San Francisco does have a lot of insane people.

By: Erin

Erin — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 21:04:28 +0000

I agree with most of the comments, THIS IS A GREAT IDEA, and would definitely get me to start bringing my own reusable bags.

By: Megan

Megan — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 19:45:36 +0000

People who think that they are entitled to waste and pollute as much as they want are the ridiculous ones. Having a plastic tax on disposable grocery bags is a great idea. The money raised from the tax is usually allocated for environmental conservation and it enourages people to be more responsible consumers. Hopefully many more cities will follow San Francisco and Ireland’s example.

By: adaptive path » blog » blog archive » Making Hidden Costs Visible

adaptive path » blog » blog archive » Making Hidden Costs Visible — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 09:45:29 +0000

[...] Unfortunately, while these measures take advantage of market forces to effect change, they also tend to make people grouchy. [...]

By: Michael Hampton

Michael Hampton — Sat, 19 Feb 2005 17:46:30 +0000

nick, I wish I was high. Why did you smoke the whole bag this morning, and not share any?

I don’t care at all if stores charge for grocery bags. But as you should very well know, this isn’t stores charging for grocery bags. It’s the government charging for grocery bags.

By: nick

nick — Sat, 19 Feb 2005 15:05:34 +0000

IO, are you high? Why should stores give something that costs money away for free? Aren’t you Mr. Libertarian Free Market or something? Doesn’t the LP support a carbon (pollution) tax? The madness here is yours, not San Fransisco’s.

By: Tony Sweeney

Tony Sweeney — Mon, 07 Feb 2005 18:52:49 +0000

This subject came up on http://www.plastic.com last week — it turns out that there are two whole countries that have implemented this policy: Ireland and South Africa. Respondents from both countries claim that it works well, and keeps tons of non-biodegradable plastic out of landfills.