San Francisco Shoppers May Have To Pay For Nonplastic Bags

That familiar grocery store query – "Paper or plastic?" – may soon apply to how you'd like to pay for the bags holding your milk and apples.

Legislation sponsored by Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi and headed for likely passage by the Board of Supervisors would require San Francisco shoppers to pay 10 cents per bag provided by the store at checkout starting July 1. That charge would jump to 25 cents per bag two years later. The store providing the bag would pocket the money.

Mirkarimi's legislation – one of his final acts before being sworn in as sheriff in January – would also expand the city's current ban on plastic bags in grocery stores and drug stores to all retail stores including department stores, clothing boutiques and bookstores starting July 1.

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