San Francisco is garnering the world’s attention with their recent ban on plastic grocery bags - the first ban of its kind in the nation.

It was almost three years ago that the city’s Board of Supervisors considered a 17 cent tax on each petroleum-based plastic grocery bag to force supermarkets and drug stores to use alternative materials that would have less of an impact on the environment and landfills. In San Francisco alone, last year there were about 180 million plastic shopping bags distributed — which, according to the San Francisco Department of the Environment and Worldwatch Institute took roughly 774,000 gallons of oil to produce.

It appears that “green” will continue to be big in 2008 with efforts such as this. And, actually it may not be such a bad idea. The world can probably live with a lot less petroleum-based plastic. Look what we’ve done with corn and soybeans in creating alternative fuels, plastics, cleaners, even ink! So perhaps this type of ban will create another boon for an earth-friendly, renewable agricultural product!

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