Editorial: Think Outside the Bag

If there's one thing Berkeley citizens pride themselves on, it's their reputation for environmental friendliness. From last year's Measure S-which would have created a "Tree Board"-to the city's symbolic signing of the Kyoto Protocol, Berkeley puts itself at the forefront of environmental issues.

But there may be some places where even tree-hugging Berkeley citizens draw the line. The response to city officials' suggestion to put a fee on plastic and paper bags at grocery stores has been ambivalent. Though the idea may not garner the popularity it deserves, Berkeley should seriously explore and implement a fee on bags while also looking at other proactive ways to reduce waste.

Instituting such a fee would, for one, reduce the amount of trash we put in landfills. According to Martin Bourque of the Ecology Center, 20 percent of Berkeley's residential waste comes in the form of thin plastics. In terms of financial burdens, it costs $50 per ton to dispose of such waste in landfills, so such a fee would help the city cover its costs and also reduce the load. And though Berkeley already disposes only 50 percent of its waste in landfills, it has to meet an Alameda County mandate requiring the city to reduce landfill waste by 75 percent by 2010. All the indicators say a bag fee is in order. So why aren't people all for this idea?

Let's face it: No one likes to pay any more for their groceries than they have to. People want to be environmentally friendly, but they don't want to have to pay extra for it.

So along with bag fees, the city should sell or distribute a number of canvas bags at grocery stores and give people, say, 2 percent discounts for using them. This should save the city money and most importantly, it would be a positive motivator instead of a negative one. It would provide Berkeleyans with a number of choices so that they wouldn't feel forced to pay a fee-and so they wouldn't try to save a few cents by fitting two gallons of milk into one plastic bag.

But while Berkeley is a green town, neither the city nor its residents have been focusing as much as they could on environmentally friendly policies. Until recently, some landlords didn't provide plastic recycling containers, and earlier this year the city had to scrap its biodiesel program, which boasted the first U.S. fleet run entirely on earth-friendly fuel. If the city wants to stay a leader in environmental policy, it must strengthen existing programs and develop positively oriented and convenient options so people take advantage of them.

A grocery bag fee would definitely be a step in this direction, but it should be coupled with complementary measures like the canvas bag program. What's more, funds collected from this program should go to environmental protection programs-maybe back into the recycling program itself.

While creating a whole new reduction program may sound daunting, the city wouldn't have to go it alone. Some stores already have such recycling or reduction programs in place. Safeway has a container outside its store for recycling plastic bags. Whole Foods takes 5 cents off your order for each bag you bring-and can forward the credit to a local environmental nonprofit group for you. Teaming up with grocery stores that reuse and recycle could help speed such policy along.

Right now the plan is just an idea. The city needs to design an effective program with plans for the revenue before jumping to ask for more money. And such policy isn't going to happen unless the city government seriously pursues it. Councilmember Dona Spring has noted it would take a group of highly motivated citizens to get a program off the ground. But with public opinion as lukewarm as it is, it's up to Mayor Bates and the City Council to bring this idea to fruition.

We aren't the first to think of this idea-San Francisco tried to institute a 17-cent bag fee, and cities in countries like Ireland have reduced bag use by 90 percent after implementing such programs. But with thin plastic waste having risen 20 percent in California in the last five years, someone has to initiate this program in the United States-and Berkeley would be the ideal place to try it out.

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