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New SF checkout bag law takes effect Oct. 1

Stacy Finz

Updated 3:03 a.m., Friday, September 21, 2012

Starting Oct. 1, BYOB in San Francisco will take on a whole new meaning.

Then, shoppers will have to bring their own bags when buying booze - and just about anything else - or incur a charge.

The city's new checkout bag ordinance requires that all retailers, with the exception of restaurants, bakeries and take-out joints (they don't have to make the change until 2013), switch from plastic bags to paper or compostable and charge customers a dime for each sack.

City government believes paper bags are more environmentally friendly but would ultimately like to see consumers switch to reusable totes.

"The hope is that by charging for bags, we will encourage people to make changes when they shop," said Friday Apaliski, outreach coordinator for the San Francisco Department of the Environment, the agency that will oversee the program.

At the same time, the city doesn't want to put a financial burden on businesses by forcing them to give up plastic bags, a cheaper alternative to paper, and hopes the 10-cent charge will allay the added expense, Apaliski said.

In 2007, San Francisco was the first city in the nation to ban large chain supermarkets and pharmacies from using plastic shopping bags. Now San Francisco joins 49 other cities and counties in the country that require all retailers to use only paper - or, in some cases, compostable - bags and to charge for them.

Tim James of the California Grocers Association said that since 2007, the big supermarkets in San Francisco have been losing $80,000 a year on the cost of paper bags. Paper grocery sacks run 7 cents to 12 cents, while plastic costs only 1 or 2 cents, he said. In other cities where the charge was implemented, James said they are now seeing 90 percent of their customers bringing in reusable bags.

'No moneymaking'

"So there is no moneymaking going on here," he said, adding that at least now supermarkets will break even on the bags. "We don't typically support regulations on our industry. But we're supporting this one."

But what has been the reaction of the customers?

"Any time you make a change like this, there's push back," he said. "But the overwhelming reaction in other cities has been customers embracing it. I won't say they're cheering in the aisles, but they're bringing their own bags."

Jon Ballesteros, vice president of public policy for the San Francisco Travel Association, said his hope is that merchants are transparent about the charge. Tourism in San Francisco is an $8 billion business, and Ballesteros wants to make sure visitors are not caught off guard by the new ordinance.

But Stephen Joseph, a lawyer for the Save the Plastic Bag coalition, a contingent of bag manufacturers, distributors and citizens that unsuccessfully sued the city over the ordinance and plans to appeal, said the charge is bound to affect tourism.

"This is no way to welcome visitors," he said. "This bag charge is going to piss them off. Furthermore, it's going to cause more garbage. What's going to happen is they're going to buy those paper bags - it's not like they're going to travel to San Francisco with reusable ones - and then they're going to dump their bags when they get on their plane to leave town.

'Green symbolism'

"This bag ordinance is nothing but green symbolism" when you consider the effect the bags' production and disposal has on the environment, he said.

Polypropylene reusable bags need to be used 104 times before they offset their greater environmental impact, according to data he collected from Los Angeles when that city studied the issue.

Cotton bags need to be used 173 times, he said. The most environmental of all the reusable bags are the ones made from polyethylene, and even they have to be used three to four times to offset their carbon footprint, he said.

Whether reusable bags are eco-friendly or not, Joseph argues that they are "horribly" unsanitary.

"San Francisco is encouraging people to put their food in the same bags they carry their gym clothes, the same bags in which they carry their underwear," he said. "These bags don't get washed, and they are filthy."

There are some exemptions in the ordinance. For example, plastic garment bags at clothing stores and laundry mats can still be given to customers for free. The same goes for the small plastic bags used for produce, fish and meat in the grocery store and the plastic wrap on newspapers to protect them from the elements.

The charge for paper bags is not taxable, and the cost must appear on a shopper's receipt, said Apaliski. In the past couple of months, the Department of Environment has been preparing San Francisco's 9,000 retailers for the October deadline. Apaliski said staffers have visited more than 5,000 businesses, mailed out 9,000 letters, and given out thousands of posters and placards for shopkeepers to post, notifying customers about the ordinance.

Retailers who don't comply could receive up to a $500 fine. But Apaliski said the city plans to work with merchants to help them through the initial complications.

"I'm sure there's going to be fits and starts," said Jim Lazarus, senior vice president for the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce. "But it's the right thing to do in a maritime environment where plastic bags wind up in the bay."

Julia Strzesieski, marketing coordinator for Cole Hardware, said her four stores are ready to go. Even though the hardware shops weren't included in the initial 2007 plastic bag ban, it complied voluntarily.

"We felt it was worth the cost of doing business to go paper only," she said, adding that now at least 25 percent of their customers bring their own bags.

As far as starting to charge for paper shopping bags in October: "We put out a newsletter that goes out to 50,000 people alerting them of the change," she said. "But we don't think it's going to be that big of a deal. Bringing your own bag is in vogue. The Europeans have been doing it for years."

Stacy Finz is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: sfinz@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @sfinz