AP News, January 9th, 2008
Some of the ways places across the world are striving to lower the use of plastic bags by shoppers in a bid to stem waste:
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CANADA FIRST
In Leaf Rapids, Manitoba — the first municipality in all of North America to propose, pass and adopt a law forbidding the use of plastic bags by shops — it's either paper or cloth, please.
The chief administrative officer of the town of about 550 people, Martin Van Osch, said "compliance has been universal" since the law took effect in April 2007.
The law calls for fines of as much as 1,000 Canadian dollars, though no one has yet received one, Van Osch said.
"The businesses in town have supported the plastic bag ban," he told The Associated Press. "They all offer reusable cloth bags and the town has its own cloth bag."
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BANNED IN AFRICA
Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania's Zanzibar islands have banned the flimsy plastic bags that float through the air, introducing minimum thickness requirements. Many independent supermarkets in Kenya's capital, Nairobi, now charge a small fee for each plastic bag but also give away a free, reusable basket with a minimum purchase.
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GERMAN PRECISION
Most stores provide German consumers with the option of a plastic bag or a canvas- or cotton-made tote — for a fee. Plastic bags, depending on their size, range from 7 cents to as much as 74 cents. Canvas or cloth bags can be had for about $1.47.
Many German consumers carry their own bags when doing the shopping and it's not uncommon to see some using wicker baskets or wheeled carts.
Regardless of whether their customers use the plastic bags, all stores that offer them have to pay a recycling fee.
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IRISH INGENUITY
In March 2003, Ireland introduced a 22-cent levy on every plastic shopping bag. That, the government said, resulted in a big drop in the number of bags that stores were handing out. Some switched to paper bags, others stopped handing out bags completely. In July 2007, Ireland raised the fee to 32 cents.
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BAGGING BRITAIN
There is no national policy regarding plastic bags in Britain. Instead, it has been left up to towns and stores themselves to sort out the trash.
Shopkeepers in the English town of Modbury, which counts some 1,500 residents, eliminated disposable plastic bags altogether, while some of the country's big grocery chains have offered customers money-saving incentives to reuse old bags.
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SWEDISH SENSIBILITY
The government is encouraging plastic bag producers to continually develop greener bags and two of the Nordic country's biggest grocery chains — ICA and Coop Konsum — have made biodegradable paper bags and reusable cloth bags available to shoppers.
Last month, ICA started issuing a plastic bag that biodegrades and Coop plans a similar one next month.
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U.S. STEPS
In March, San Francisco became the first city to ban common plastic shopping bags, and at least 30 villages and towns in Alaska have followed suit.
The New York City Council was set to vote Wednesday on a measure that would require large stores to recycle plastic bags. Under the law, chain stores that have more than five locations, as well as stores occupying 5,000 or more square feet, would have to establish their own in-store recycling program for the bags.
Stores would be fined for not complying but there would be no penalty for consumers.
The Pacific Protection Initiative, an effort launched in California to address problems of plastic marine debris, reports that the following cities in the U.S. are also considering fees or outright bans of plastic bags: Austin, Texas; Bakersfield, Calif.; Boston; New Haven, Conn.; Portland, Ore.; Phoenix; and Annapolis, Md.
