San Francisco has reversed its 13-year ban on plastic bags and will now prohibit the reusable bags city leaders once championed because of the coronavirus.If they're smart, they won't go back. Raise your hand if you think they're smart.
The liberal city announced the switch this week as part of its plan to curb the spread of coronavirus. Barring customers from bringing reusable bags, mugs and other household items into stores was adopted as a measure “to prevent unnecessary contact” among the public.
San Francisco is not the only place that has reversed its reusable bag policy, but it is certainly the most surprising. The city was at the forefront of eliminating single-use plastic bags in 2007.
(Note: yes, the first sentence at the link is written awkwardly. It should open with what are now its last four words.)
A number of years ago, when I last visited San Francisco, I was at the Ferry Place market to get makings for a lunch to take on the plane for our return home. I pulled a plastic bag from the offered roll and was about to fill it with various baby greens from the displayed boxes, when the vendor asked me if I was going to use the greens immediately. When I said that I would put them in the refrigerator in our hotel room until we left for the airport, he handed me a different bag; saying he would deny doing so, and told me that he was required (can’t remember if it was by city, county or state) to offer only biodegradable bags, which started composting baby greens, berries and other fragile produce within 15 minutes. I am sure all of the politicians who supported that law felt very virtuous.
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