Sorry, old man. I'm not downvoting you, though ;)

And I just upvoted both

Again, we have a problem, a cause, a solution and a way to avoid addressing the cause while hoping the problem just goes away - all the time making someone else pay for it.

-Problem: Petro-based Plastic Bags are "blamed for littering streets and choking marine life".

-Cause: People refuse to take the time or effort to put their bags into the garbage or the recycling bin.

-The City's Solution: Outlaw the bags.

-The Avoidance: Not having to make people take care of the bags they have. That way they don't have to address the impropper behaviour. They don't have to enforce the recycling laws and they don't have to try to make people do the right thing.

-Who foots the bill: Grocery stores have to buy eco-friendly bags at a much higher price and they pass the cost on to the public. Or, paper bags are used which cost more to produce and more to recycle than the old plastic bag - same result.

-The Result: Grocery prices go up and now the streets are littered with new bags that will break down in a year instead of 3 years - and the marine life is still choaked, just not as badly???

Guess what? The problem still exists because people are still doing the same thing they were before. No destructive behaviour has been changed. The only thing that has happened, prices have gone up and the only way that San Francisco is going to get greener is if that's the color of the new bags.