Oh, you are such a wasteful tree destroyer if you use paper bags! Everyone must use plastic, plastic bags will save the world, we can save the Amazon rain forest if we all switch to plastic bags. The cry went up and the campaign went on until most people started using plastic.
Now, SF wants to tax people for using them! Way to go lefties, this is a new low. This has nothing to do with "charging for bags" it has to do with another way to tax people. SF the armpit of the US.
It was paper that was ruining the environment 30 years ago now it is the plastic bags they pushed so hard for then that are ruining SF. Crap! Soon we will have a state tax and then a fed bag tax!