San Francisco Bans Plastic Grocery Bags

San Francisco is, again, first in the nation. San Francisco has banned those plastic grocery bags which, admittedly, are convenient and all that, but environmentally, not so convenient.

My cynical side is waiting for business "leaders" to protest that market forces should determine this sort of thing. Well, I don't trust those elusive market forces one bit. If we trusted market forces, I really think we would still be riding around in cars with no seat belts, airbags, crumple zones, exploding gas tanks, etc. If we put our trust in market forces, we would still be hearing about workers dieing in coal mines (oh, wait)...We would still being hearing about garment workers burning alive.

This is where government must take the lead. Market forces are fine when dealing with issues of quality of product(Toyota? Ford? - which would you buy?), levels of service, taste of consumer, location of store, etc. But to trust market forces to take the lead in of safety, environment, and worker's rights? Not so good (market forces look at the bottom line, and the environment is never factored into the bottom line).

So, YAY for San Francisco

update on the whole market forces thing:
Burger King Shifts Policy on Animals

In what animal welfare advocates are describing as a "historic advance," Burger King, the world's second-largest hamburger chain, said yesterday that it would begin buying eggs and pork from suppliers that did not confine their animals in cages and crates.

Good for Burger King.

Let's hope this is a trend that continues into other fast food outlets.

via Andrew Sullivan