BAGGAGE

I wanted to rant about the plastic bag law, but so far it hasn’t pained me at all. I used to ask for paper bags, now I don’t have to ask—paper’s all my local Lucky offers.

I love the handles.

The test will come with our next big rain.

People who try to walk or Muni home with paper bags full of groceries in the middle of a downpour may find the bottom falling out. Hell awaits.

Jared Blumenthal, head of the burgeoning Department of Environment was one of three who spoke at the signing of the Anti-plastic Bag Ordinance, along with Mayor Newsom and Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi.

Blumenthal impressed twice. At one point he corrected the mayor’s claim about the benefits of the plastic bag ban—the mayor had exaggerated by an order of magnitude.

Later Jared revealed his secret goal for the plastics ban. He, and many, assumed that the plastic bags would be replaced with similar looking bags made out of corn stalks or some such material.

The new, non-plastic bags, Jared told us, would be compostable, which would help San Franciscans conquer the “ick” factor when separating table scraps for the “green” compostables garbage bins.

So it was about composting! And may well become. I was hoping I’d be dead by the time composting becomes mandatory.

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BAG CALC

So they passed the bag ordinance. It’s good for the environment, supposedly. And it only hurts the large food and drug retailers, supposedly. Read the Chronicle story here.

There is uncertainty about the actual total costs to the residents of San Francisco for this measure. The effects on the environment are far from certain. The near and mid term costs/savings to SF’s recycling efforts are unknown.

For an intelligent discussion of the recycling costs issue, and other environmental issues, see this discussion on The Wall.

The Chronicle story provides numbers that allow us to calculate the difference in purchase price of the current versus new “green” bags.

I’ve taken the Chronicle’s number of 180million plastic bags used in SF per year. I’ve used a conservative estimate of the difference in price at five cents per bag.

So the calc shows that if all plastic bags were the new green bags, the cost to the city would be $9million per year. If half the bags were green $4.5million.

It’s great that our city is so rich.

SF’s Environment Director is happy.

"It's really exciting," Jared Blumenfeld, director of the city's Department of the Environment, said after the vote on Tuesday. "We're thrilled. It's been a long time in the making."

On the Environmental Office’s bio of Blumenfeld he enthuses:

Together we can make San Francisco the greenest city on the planet.

No matter how much it costs, I guess.

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