San Francisco Extends Plastic Bag Ban To Restaurants

Doggie bags and takeout foods will head home bagless, if officials in San Francisco have anything to say about it.

The city’s Board of Supervisors voted earlier this month to make it illegal for any shop in the city to offer disposable plastic bags to customers. The law expands a five-year-old bag ban that applies to large grocery stores and pharmacies, and also mandates stores charge customers 10 cents apiece for paper bags.

The legislation, meant to reduce litter and waste-processing costs, requires that all retail outlets stop distributing single-use plastic bags by this October. Starting in 2013, the ban will apply to restaurants as well. Reusable bags will remain legal.

In 2007, San Francisco was the first city in the country to ban plastic bags at grocery stores and drug stores; since then, cities including Washington, D.C., and San Jose, Calif., have enacted even stricter bans.