has publicly expressed support for small business, most recently in the actions to ban electronic cigarettes, sadly, district 10 has been unresponsive to multiple new requests that i have personally made to have businesses added to the registry and businesses like farley's who celebrated the 30th anniversary and is very involved in the local community. the former supervisor, malia cohen was really responsive and helped us out getting this program started. i would like it if the supervisor in my district where i live and own a business is supportive of a program. this is a flagship program in the city as well as the united states and one that is very well received by the businesses who

are grateful of the process to go through to be added to the registry in addition to the financial benefits. i have advocated that the commission should have the authority to nominate worthy businesses to circumvent some of the delays we see when we encounter the supervisor's offices who are disinterested in the program and simply don't have time. i get that we have competing agendas but to make multiple requests to an office and be ignored is something that i just find real estatingly aggravating and something -- really aggravating and something that i wish we could be empowered. we can't just do it ourselves and it requires the supervisors and potentially the voters to change what was a voter initiative. the legacy business registry was approved by the voters.

the supervisors have an obligation to the citizens to support the program as best they can. all businesses that are nominated by a with the outstanding job of insuring that the businesses meet that experience. >> and very disappointed and it seems to me that the supervisor is putting process ahead of outcomes. we are all living in the city together. we deserve a government that works together to achieve outcomes that are in all of interest and i don't think there's any doubt to anybody that is in the city the contribution that anchor steam brewery has made to the city.

with the indelible mark and what i was drinking with my wife when i have proposed and i am disappointed to hear the stance that supervisor walton has taken with respect to this nomination. i have supported the supervisor on other matters. this is not what i want to hear at all. to end on a more positive note, i would like to congratulate -- well, premature to congratulate. >> you can go ahead and congratulate them. >> for the nomination. >> all of nominees are wonderful businesses and i heard they spend a lot of time in comix experience with my sons and i have yet to visit hockey haven, but heaven -- haven? haven.

but that sounds like a must visit. the castro is where my kids go to elementary school and you have a wonderful business there and is always a pleasure and honor to a tourism business who has survived more than six months. we are happy and honored to support you. >> just one more comment and not to single out anchor brewery, but i have to say as a fan of the product that anchor is a quintessential legacy business in this city. it is one of the oldest businesses in the dog patch neighborhood and historic

business and fritz maytag who was the c.e.o. for 40-some years, he was very instrumental in helping me start sf made, another very important program in the city, so anchor has played an essential role not only in being a legacy business but start programs that have benefitted manufacturing businesses in the city, and so i can't think of a company that is anymore deserving than they are and all the candidates are equally deserving. >> great. >> thank you. through the president normally i don't comments but for the joe goode performance group, i was on the board for 10 years in the

90s and think it's both fitting for both cruising the castro and the joe goode performance group -- we haven't taken action yet, but being nominated for the legacy business registry in june and that have this potential for closing out our june with celebrating these two very lgbt focused organizations and want to just acknowledge that joe's work early on was very -- he stayed true to himself being a gay man and also the experience of the aids crisis -- emotional, sorry. and so i am real excited that we're going to still be on the registry. soon. >> thank you. commissioner ortiz. >> i want to say i want to give a shout out to all my friends that work there at anchor brewery. the union cap now and all them.

and we grew up together with free samples, so you got to give us some. and another is el toreador. we were discussing the traffic woes and no excuse and i got to get out there for the kids to get out there. >> commissioner yee-riley. >> el toreador is one of my faif favorite restaurants and i enjoy the atmosphere and decor and the friendly servers. i am happy that this is going to be nominated for the legacy business. >> in keeping with the drinking theme, a couple to, too, many

margarita pitcher there is and my family and i enjoy the restaurant very much. to think you are in the transportation business. >> and i wanted to give a shot out to anchor brewery and the favorite beer is the california lagger. you hit a homerun with that one. and everything you have done, i know you have opened up the tap room to a lot of community events and people and with the tours and the neighborhood groups in the area. but the big shout out is kathy amondola. i knew trevor very well. when i joined castro per chants in 1996, trevor took me under her wings and i know we have a member and president of the former harvey milk board is here, and there is a connection between you.

that big rainbow flag that you see at the end of market street, market goes up the hill. and that was trevor's doing. she fought. her and gilbert baker fought for that, but it was trevor's yand he was, like, we got to get a big flag up and contacted gilbert maker and the harvey milk democratic club, trevor contacted them to be a fiscal sponsor and they jumped in and we got between gilbert, harvey milk democratic club, and that flag and took over when trevor retired. and there were a lot for free. the kid that comes and you want our parents to know what the

community is about, you send them on kathy's tour. my parents went on that tour with trevor to learn about the castro and it changed their attitudes. and kathy's tours, every saturday i see her and give her a shout out and she always has a big crowd and they charge, but she probably gives the best neighborhood tour in the city and all over the place in the contributions to the astro merchants and sf travel, and trevor is looking down and she is very, very proud of what you have done with her business. so i just want to say thank you. do we have a motion? >> move to approve all the legacy business no, ma'am niece. >> seconded. >> motion by commissioner dwight to approve all six resolutions to be added to the legacy business registry and seconded

by commissioner laguana. roll call vote. >> motion passes 6-0 with one absent. >> great. congratulations. next item please. >> item four, board of supervisors file number 190-417, environmental code, check out bag charge, recyclable or compostable precheck out bags and to raise the amendment stores must charge from 10 cents to 25 cents to require that precheck out bags be provided to customers before they reach the point of sale and affirming the determination under the

environmental quality act and legislative aide to supervisor brown and the department of environment. and -- yeah. >> supervisor brown desperately wanted to be here to speak on this subject and i will say a little bit more about why she was so interested and passionate about being here. she currently is in land use committee to work on getting the small business streamlined there and thank you for the unanimous support for that legislation. we are sort of doing our best to keep it in tact as possible in the face of some opposition to important changes there. as an update, we should know more and i will be running back downstairs to continue to support her in that hear. but wanted to be here to say a little bit about why we brought

this legislation forward and why so important to supervisor brown and the city. very quickly, supervisor brown first came to work at city hall to work on environmental issues and street violence. those were her two passions as an activist more than 10 years ago when she first came into the building. she with respect to the environment, she was particularly passionate about climate change and plastic and environmental pollution. she came to work for then supervisor ross and together they did some of the very earliest work on clean power sf and climate based initiatives as well as on plastic bags and addressing the issue of plastic bags. they also passed the first plastic bag charge which is really one half of the legislation that we're considering here today. we are looking at increasing

that fee back in 2012, 2014 -- forgive me, i don't have my notes in front of me, but the idea there was that these create incredible cost to the environment. to help sort of build awareness among consumers about the degradation and pollution that comes from plastic bags, we wanted to put a fee into place and it had great effect by all accounts. i think the department of the environment will speak more directly to that. but since that time we have seen a number of other -- 12 different local jurisdictions in the bay area pass their own charges and keep, so a dime is paid to the per chant. the per chant uses it to support -- the merchant uses it to support its work. so a number of these other jurisdictions have higher fees than us because time passes and

things become -- the value of money changes and so they're now charges of a quarter in santa cruz and a number of other jurisdictions and started a dime when they first passed their legislation and what we have seen is by making that change, increasing the amount of the charge, we see another very significant bump in consumer awareness and the number of people bringing reusable bags into the shop. so we avoid this plastic bag pollution. something on the order of 90 plus percent of plastic bags never make it into recycling and just straight up waste or into the oceans or environment. americans are using something like 100 billion plastic bags annually. these are new plastic bags every year. i mean, that's a lot of plastic bags. so you can imagine the type of waste we are seeing. as a city surrounded by water and both our oceans and our bay, we know this sort of impacts on the waterways and the

environment particularly intimately. so just to speak to the legislation, the other piece of the legislation now is first of its kind as far as we know in the country to take on plastic bags in the produce aisle and primarily the produce bags that we use to slow loose bulk items and jalapenos and loose leaves and there are alternatives and we have bet earn alternatives than the single use disposable plastic bags. because of the traditional check out back, plastic bags were never use and you better believe these sort of produce bags mainly make it into our waste stream and into the environment. and so we're excited about the opportunity to take that challenge on and continue supervisor brown's work on this issue. and just as a final note, just

last month a study, peer reviewed study, has shown the connection between plastics and climate change. this is petroleum industry is only growing the amount of plastic which is a waste stream of our oil industry and growing that sector of the market. and they're looking to increase by another 75% the amount of plastic they produce in this country. and in between now and 2030 and this is a booming market and we're headed in exactly the wrong direction in terms of how we're producing plastics. given sort of our challenges of the climate change and this sort of environmental waste. we have done our best to think carefully about the small business community and to talk with folks and the first we -- regina was probably the first meeting and really wanted to make sure that we were taking the lessons from the first piece

of legislation on the bag charge and taking the best practices and continuing to do that so we've, again, proposed to leave the charge in the hand of the merchants. and we're also very focused on the department will speak to this on outreach and getting outreach into the right sort of merchant communities and also doing a lot of consumer education and awareness. both in the press and sort of traditional marketing exercise. so that people don't show up to the register and take an extra three or five minutes asking the merchant about, what do you mean, it is a quarter. it's a dime. we will do our best to avoid that scenario and to make sure that the changes don't have impacts on communities and minority language communities. so that is our commitment and we're also i would say working on a reusable bag giveaway campaign which we are really excited about to support the outreach efforts both into the

merchant communities and to consumers hoping to give something on the order of 10,000 or more reusable bags away to people. these are bags they will keep and continue to use. so i'll stick around for questions. but i want to turn it over to the department. >> i have a quick question. >> please. you have >> where have you been the last few years? i don't know anybody who doesn't use their own bags. like, i went to the diamond heights safeway and there was not one person in the checkout line that -- everybody was bringing their own bags. >> yes. >> why do we need this legislation? i mean, i love the supervisor. i think what she is -- i think what this stuff with requiring businesses to have cash businesses, love it, love it, love it. i don't like this. >> okay. >> and 25 cents, this is san francisco. there is a lot of people who 25 cents it won't be a big thing to them. where i worry about is low and

poor income people who do bring a bag, for whatever reason, and if they forget, a quarter is a quarter and four quarters is a dollar. and sorry, just with my banker, and this is what -- the way you just spoke to me about this law is like, in san francisco we're not paying attention. and i think in san francisco because of vallie and ross and that legislation that they passed five years ago, i think it's in everybody's mindset that you bring a bag to check out. i mean, even when i go shopping in downtown in the big stores, i bring my own bag. i think -- and i almost feel like we're being punished for doing the right thing. and i just -- this is how i feel. and like i said, i like everything you do, but on this one, and the way it was just described, i am not doing my job, and in fact, looking in the back of the car and i have a

stack of bags. my company gave out -- you said 10,000 bags. my company has given out more than 100,000 bags in this town at street fairs and whatever. all right. so this is -- i am just trying to comprehend all this in my mind because this is keeping me awake for the last week. it's like, why are we doing this? because we are environmentally correct in this town. and we are doing the right thing. so why are we being punished? >> thank you, commissioner. i'm sorry that this has kept you up the past week. >> i appreciate it. >> and the quick answer to your question is, i would say we wish you -- we wish everyone in san francisco were as conscientious as you and your company. unfortunately, that's not the case. and i think the department can speak more directly to some of what we are seeing, but we have seen slippage in the sort of usage or rather, an increase in the amount of plastic bags that

are coming back into our businesses. the state passed legislation and unfortunately left a loophole wherein thicker plastic bags were allowed to come back in. and i think awareness also. and here we are seven years later and five years later, and people and that dime is sort of -- the people who are going to sort of catch on because of a dime, they've caught on at this point. like you, they are bringing the reusable bags. so we saw great success in the first iteration. and we believe that there's still a significant number of san francisco residents who are not doing as you are and bringing reusable bags. we want to get their attention. with respect to the equity issue that you raised, it is foremost on supervisor brown's mind and really sort of one of the primary concerns along with small businesses and the impact on them that this legislation would have. and we're -- one, if you are shopping with snap benefits, you are already excluded from this charge.

so our lowest income folks who are shopping on food stamps and the like, they are not going to see a bag charge ever. and the other, we ransom quick numbers back of napkin for how many times we expect and i think the department can speak to this -- we are talking like $40 a year even for the -- if you are -- yeah. >> even the pre-checkout bags and that i support and i have supported that. but just that 25 cents is just -- i i'm sorry, just be -- i'm sorry. but i will let the department of environment speak. >> thank you. i'll stick around. >> all right. >> good afternoon, everyone. my name is alexa kelty with department of the environment and i thank you for listening to this item. peter, our policy person s going to load the presentation for me. and i also wanted to thank

supervisor brown's office for their leadership on bags and all their other environmental policies that they are working on. we really appreciate it. so it's going to be a bit of a review from what juan carlos already covered. so i will breeze through this quickly. but essentially last year national geographic and many of you know there is a plastic crisis. we're producing too much plastic. and national geographic last year on the cover came out with an article and the front page article on the plastic crisis. and there is 700 million tons of plastics going into our ocean annually. the only way to get to this issue is by turning off the faucet. recycling ourselves out of this issue is not going to work. 9% of all the plastic ever produced on the planet is recycled. the rest is landfilled or ending up in the environment. we need to look at how can we

really reduce plastic from being produced to begin with. juan carlos mentioned the proliferation of the thick plastic bags. the state legislation allows for reusable plastic bags, so even though we have banned the t-shirt bags, the thin, cheap plastic bags, there was kind of a loophole for the thick, reusables. and more stores are choosing to go this route as opposed to paper because they can either charge for paper or they can charge for the plastic. so we're seeing more stores kind of deciding the plastic is a better way to go. some of the motivation is getting at how can we reduce the usage of the thick plastic bags. and so as you know, this legislation proposes to take the charge from 10 to 25 cents and that was mentioned earlier is 10

cities doing 25 cents and even small cities like the city of gonzalez. and santa clara county, they are doing 15 cents. the rest are already at 10 cents. and that 10 cents -- sorry t25 cent charge at check and you see a 90% reduction. and that is what we are driving toward to get to that 90% reduction, and the city of santa cruz is already at that 90% reduction and the country of ireland is at 90% reduction. >> where are we? >> we are looking up the baseline number. i believe we are between 60 and 90, and i can get exact numbers to you at another time. i don't think we have them here. >> that is a big range. if we were at 90, this would have zero effect. >> true. i will get back to you on that. >> the second part of this as you all know is prohibiting the

plastic pre-checkout bags defined as any bag distributed before the point of sale for produce and meat and bulk items. and another thing we're seeing that is motivating us to work towards this prohibition is a lot of the produce bags being put into the compost bins and the residential setting. so of course, folks want to wrap their food scraps as a cheener way to contain the food scraps and on the way out of the buildings, typically apartment buildings will drop off the food scraps wrapped in plastic. hopefully we can redoes some of the contamination. stores will give out the b.p.i. certified compostable bags on the left side or paper. check choose to charge if they like, but that is not in this

ordinance. we're hoping with the proliferation of more access to compostable bags that will make residen residents easier to increase the compostable action and there is the increase of composting. businesses that are impacted would be farmer's markets and grocery stores and we did have a conversation regarding hardware and they can use paper bags for the nails and small items. and produce markets, of course, would be effective. and as mentioned, we -- our department will be doing lots of outreach to the business community and doing a city wide mailer to all businesses affected by the ordinance and make the placards available to that business community doesn't

have to always be communicating directly to the customers. so the placards will say 25 cent charge on bags. and they will be available. we will also have the outreach team called environment now out covering the business corridors and talking to the business community directly. and specifically targeting mono lingual businesses. we have already done -- given out 25,000 bags in the past. particularly targeting low income communities, seniors, and limited english communities. we will be doing that again in partnership with supervisor brown's office. and continue the city wide campaign which is getting consumers to be responsible and bringing their own bags, reminders. this all really fits under the overall goals and we have pivoted away from zero waste into generation reduction. so one of the big goals is not

stop telling people, but focus the attention on what we're reducing as opposed to the energy into recycle and compost more. this is about the 10% overall generation reduction goal that was announced by our mayor during the global climate summit. we also wanted to thank the business community, the small businesses in particular, whofsh fantastic partners in recycling and composting with a huge amount of work in that area. way over 90% participation in the composting programs and really the city wouldn't a deserving community and so we thank you. i am happy to take any questions. >> commissioner dwight. >> well, i shop in a market that provides compostable bags for produce, and i will say that we use them, so testimony to the fact that it does generate good behavior. i want to get back to the point, and just going to make this

statement and you don't have the data to today to talk about, but we were promised by the first speaker a big bump in the reduction of disposable bags. we then explored the experience of some other places like ireland that have experienced and now have 90% rates of reduction, and it's never going to be 100%. it is the nature of the world. 90 may be the maximum. we don't know. but to say it's -- san francisco is from 60 to 90 percent is no way to go into proposing a piece of legislation. if it is 90%, you are there. this is done. the first piece was successful. focus on the important part of the legislation which is not the 25 cent increase but, in fact, the replacement of nonreusable

bags in the produce department. okay? let's not conflate the issues here. if we are good citizens on the first initiative what was to get rid of them at checkout, start moving back in the stream the way you are. but don't put in this legislation something that will have zero effect and will cause a great deal of confusion. frankly, i don't care if it's 10 cents, 25 cents, or a dollar personally because i bring reusable bags. i am already a convert. you are preaching to the converted and taxing not me. and so if everyone else is already got religion, then all you're doing is causing a controversy at the checkout for our merchants. what do you mean it's a dollar? what do you mean it's 25 cents? it's always been 10 cents. i don't care what it is because i am not affected by it, but how come you are changing it? we don't need that conversation 10,000 times times three, five,

20 sektdz seconds to have that conversation to make a productivity hit on the merchants and the ability to get people in and out of the stores. if you have ever waited in line at the market, 10, 20 deep, the last thing i want to hear is people arguing about, what they are getting charged for their bag and making that line take 50 to 100 percent longer. so i really object when people come in here and make quantitative -- try to put forward quantitative arguments with nothing but qualitative information with no data. the data exists. you have it in other countries. if you are really wanted to be thorough, you would bring the data with you. okay? and so we are here to help you do better legislation. and good legislation has good frame work, good foundation. this one to me doesn't seem like a good foundation yet. if you have the data, great, go get and bring it back to supply to everybody.

>> all right. >> may i respond? >> thank you. >> thank you, commissioners. i'm peter golata public policy and the san francisco department of the environment. thank you for your comments, commissioner. i just want to clarify on the data piece. in the findings of the proposed legislation t department of environment did an informal survey after the 10-cent charge went into effect in 2012 and we found we had about a 60% adoption rate at that 10 cents. so we know that based on the data that we have from other cities and that have implemented the increased charge that they are see tag go to 90. >> of course it is an additional incentive.

it is a 15-cent additional incentive. the question is, you have a data point which now is outdated. good news. since that time, there is a huge amount of press about this z opportunity and for me to tell my friend, what, you didn't bring a bag? what an idiot. fit's still 60%, i should be shocked. i'll bet it is higher than that. what is it? do another informal study? >> i appreciate your optimism. >> it has been years. >> we are challenged with the consumer behavior and the level op consumption that we are facing san francisco which is why my yor breed and generation is exploding in the city and even since 2012, we are seeing

greater consumption with people purchasing and the amazon effect and people are purchasing more from a takeout standpoint as well. we also are seeing an increase in bags for takeout and delivery. we have done some follow-up on implementation and compliance with the business comment. we are seeing great compliance for the most part amongst businesses. we are about 8 # o% of the businesses that we have surveyed and are compliant in terms of charging for the checkout bags. >> takeout and delivery is a special use case. it is a carve out in the previous legislation, is it not? they have special dispensation for food related products. >> the exception under the current law is for if you are dining in store and you are -- you have leftover food and you would like to take it home with you, you are not charged for that bag. however, if you are coming in to a food service establishment and you are making a to-go purchase, if a bag is provided, that

charge should be implemented. >> that is fine. but why don't you go after making those bags compostable to be used the same way as the produce department? you have, one, an enforcement and compliance issue. and you have a different issue which is going after the source. taxing people simply to change their behavior is not good enough. it is providing a viable alternative because people are embracing those alternatives. they are embracing reusable bags and compostable bags. one of the arguments against compostable bags is they are more expensive. fine. we have to bear the burden somewhere, but that is a compliance issue. why not focus on the source? you are focussing on behavior and that is notoriously difficult to modify without providing viable alternatives. you just told me we have a behavior problem with increase in use, but you haven't actually convinced me. we have apparently high

compliance in the area that you have already addressed. i think you are not addressing the areas where the increases are happening. there is a huge increase in takeout. it's been driven by the technology industry. you need to go address it at the source. okay? the source is not the consumer. the source is the technology companies and the providers of those services and they need to change their behavior. they need to have an incentive to provide compostable bags. just telling people not to use bags anymore is not going to solve the problem. >> i would say, just to respond to that, commissioner, i think we have the department is very well versed -- our department is committed to behavior change. that is the corner stone of our department's work. and we are very familiar with the -- how consumer behavior can be changed. and we have found that the reason that we accompany these charges on materials or items has a big impact in terms of

driving further behavior change. there has been -- we can provide further studies to you on that matter, but it is one of the most effective tools that we have. >> the study is not there. the problem is the study is not there yet. i don't want to argue this any further. you provided outdated data and a big bump, but we don't have a quantitative number. if it's 5% because we are at 85%, that is a lot different than if we are at 60% and going to get to 90 to get a 40% bump out of a 15% bump. that is all i am asking for and that data, can we agree that that data is not available today. because the number at 60% is several years old. and you don't know what the compliance is today. unless you are doing another informal study. i would suggest, and it would be great if you would do that for the public of san francisco so we can know whether we'reing with good or not. that would be useful. i would like to know if the neighbors are good. i'm done. >> commissioner laguana. >> i respectfully disagree with my colleagues.

i commend supervisor brown's efforts to do something about the environmental crisis that is looming and approaching and causing ever more problems. i guess my question would be, has there been any consideration to make this -- provide some sort of cola adjustment so that we don't have to keep revisiting this periodically? >> that is a great idea. >> by the way, i am not saying do nothing. i am saying do the right thing. >> i hear you. >> appreciate that. we discussed it early in and it was hard to find a mark to set the colas at. it felt like and we're hoping for sort of a world in which this is not something we are revisiting still in 20 years.

and all i would say is for matters as simple of initially addressing this issue, we sort of passed on the cola, but i think it's worthwhile and sort of good concept and i think it's worth exploring further with the department. >> okay. i appreciate that. >> keep an eye open for that. i would just say in general when confronted with multi-factorial problems that are dense and challenging, sometimes you just have to throw everything and the kitchen sink at it. certain certainly my experience than introducing cost can and does change behavior. clearly it changed behavior in 2012 and i i remember how much people were upset about that at the time. but i think it had an impact then. since then i'll note that the

minimum wage has the increased by approximately $3 -- well, in a couple days now, $3.59 an hour. so given that most grocery expenses are fairly infrequent, i think that the cost factor here is largely diminished and the awareness factor is really what's important. certainly every time i go to a grocery and ask if i eel pay extra for the plastic bag, it gets me thinking about the issue again. and i think that's an important component. i also commend the supervisor on crafting a bill that did not -- does not materially effect small business and allows the stores to keep the money and it seems to me that it merely decreases

the cost that probably isn't where they see a lot of profit to begin with. so from my perspective, i think it's a good bill and i would like to see more of it and in more areas. >> commission zouzounis. >> thank you, all, for your presentation. i have a couple of questions. it was my understanding that we've already banned plastic bags in san francisco, and i know you said there was an exception, but in the industry that i am most familiar with, the small convenience stores and the grocers, my family's business in particular, we made that full switch and we ate the cost of buying paper bags that are stronger with handles at three times the price as the bags that were banned. so in that sense, i do feel like we're being punished for that conversion in particular. so my question is, maybe big grocery trips are less frequent, but we have customers that come in every day.

so are we administering this charge for also daily paper bag uses? this isn't just associated with the heavy plastic bags, right? we charge this for regular paper bags as well? >> peter, department of environment. thank you, commissioner. yes, so any checkout bag transaction if it is a paper bag that is provided to the customer for collecting their items to depart, would be subject to the ordinance and so the paper bag would be subject to the 25 cent charge. >> okay. thank you. and i know -- thank you, juan carlos, for your conversations on this because one thing that we were dealing with as merchants prior with the 10 cent charge is we had to do our own -- we made our own signs. because we weren't provided with outreach material. and either way, i like to eare

mind policymakers that -- who haven't worked behind the counter or aren't familiar with the human error that is part in the dialogue that is entailed with being in retail, this will no matter how much outreach you do, we will have to -- our lunch rush will be slowed down. we will have to have these conversations. and it will affect businesses despite the signage that's provided. so that needs to be noted. and just also largely, a lot of the big picture environmental and public health laws that san francisco implements fall on retail. and i am just curious if we aren't looking at the right mechanisms and going after the low-hanging fruit instead of being more creative with the policy directives. we are paying for one fee in particular goes to the convenience stores pay goes towards the bulk of street cleaning as a whole in san

francisco. we collect cans and bottles which you are familiar with. that c.r.v. issue. and these are all falling on retail and we need to be aware of that. and lastly, interesting about the restaurant takeaway piece. this is another concern of mine that regulatory license holders like type 20 and 21 and alcohol use and businesses are paying a fee that restaurants that have an alcohol license aren't maying. this is another example that retail is paying for more than restaurants. i think that is also a huge problem. >> if i may respond to some of your comment, thank you, commissioner. i will kind of address them backwards. starting with the last comment. i think we want to look at the legislation working closely with the supervisor's office in terms of where if there is a loophole in terms of the rise of the third party delivery apps and in

terms of the charges, the charge is supposed to go back to the business. the business implements the charge and keeps the charge, right? so we want to make sure in instance where is there is takeout that those funds are going back to the source of where the product is being made and sold. and so that's something we want to look at to make clear that the business is still earning that charge and keeping the charge in those situations. and we also, one of the big challenges and this goes back to commissioner dwight's comments that we face with local policies and in this case is state law. the state has a checkout bag law that went into effect on in effect by the voters in 2016 and it limits our ability locally to address the thicker plastic bags or to assign the charge in a different way. it is designed that the charge

applies to all bags equally and that the really only mechanism we have at a local level to address the issue of single use disposable checkout bags is through changing the charge. so we would really like to see and we know many businesses have shifted away from single use plastic or even the thicker reusable plastic. some have tried compostable and many are choosing to paper. the reality is the law still allows for that thicker, reusable plastic. and we can't mandate anything otherwise per state law. it challenges us from really encouraging a greater shift oiway and what we have committed to doing is as much education and outreach as possible. we are happy to work closely with you and members of the

commission to be on the outreach piece and the materials that we're going to develop to update and inform consumers. the big challenge i think for us from a policy standpoint is focussing on the consumer responsibility and also the producer responsibility. so we definitely hear the concerns around the impacts to retail and how do we go further upstream in terms of looking at policies that address manufacturing and the production of these materials. and in this case we're hamstrung by state law. but we're really trying to address the consumer responsibility piece in partnership with the business community. try to make it a win-win where the business keeps that charge and hopefully we're incentivizing and further incentivizing the behavior change from the public and we're committed to working. >> right. i understand that. don't get me wrong. i am happy that this is not under line item that we have to pay as a fee.

but economics isn't that easy to interpret it as, oh, this is going to be just money back to the small businesses because we lose money when our lines get longer and take more time. we lose money when our prices go up and this is a r essentially what is happening. your lunch is going to be 25 cents more now. and consumers interpret that as this store is increasing their prices. and that is the reality. so i understand that you think it's just going to be coming back to us, but it will be indirect loss. >> and we want to make sure we're working as much as we can to educate consumers on the issue and we have heard that concern. and want to make sure we're addressing that and whether this is going beyond a posted placard

or signage, we feel committed to addressing the consumer awareness more broadly and showed some examples of the refuse reuse campaign and want to make that part of the culture of san francisco. and people say, you know what, i don't need a bag. i can carry the sandwich wrapped in the paper. i can carry the beverage and so that's kind of the culture that we are hoping to push forward. so that folks are not kind of experiencing that charge and thinking about the consumer choices. >> commissioner ortiz. >> i want to thank everybody that presented today and just first off the ba bat, we're all with the spirit. we might be on the same page, and i don't want to live my grandkids a big pile of plastic, so we're on the same page. the purview is to protect and see it there u the lens of the small business. as a minority, i grew up in the roughest neighborhoods and the

way culturally we shop is different and 25 cents is huge. and snap would be mitigated, but if i am undocumented person, i don't have snap. i am still poor, though. and 25 cents and we shop differently. mike my mom would have to shop day by day. so 30 days, that is like 7.50 and to some of the colleagues in their culture, that is not a lot, but to us that is a meal. my woman would buy a potato, and boom, if for $2, we had dinner at least. and i want to put you in perspective with the cultural lens because they are separate. also, in the bayview, there is food deserts. again, shopping small. and the way we're culturally raised, we don't bring the bag and go and expect a bag because we shop small, for the day, for the meal. i just want to put that perspective and small businesses is constantly getting bombarded. like mee colleague says, it is perceived in our spanish culture, oh, hacienda, again,

charging 25 cents and nickel and dime. we could bring all the literature and show them this tape, they ain't buying that. just so you can see that. and then another thing overall thing for me on the whole different note is i don't think -- i think all our efforts in the city and all the departments, we offer in silos in a way where the big culprit is sometimes the big ride share technology app, the gypsy services that are not regulated. a lot of the culture has changed here in san francisco because of the traffic, so what do we do? we pick up and we get food delivered now. those are the big culprit. and why do me as the consumer or the restaurant i am shopping for have to pick up the tab? why aren't we hitting up amazon for $2 every single time we place an order. not either side of the transaction, but them because they are the ones and the ubers and lyfs, causing the traffic and we don't want to go to the neighborhood and we have to call now. so i just want you to put it in perspective.

but i know you probably got kind of hit up today. we don't want plastic either. trust me. even the co-commissioner dwight, probably the first one that doesn't want plastic. we're with you. we just got to work on --. >> the checkout part is fine. 25 cents we're trying to grasp. >> yeah. >> commissioner riley. >> yes. i am with my colleagues. i support the second part of the legislation. i think it's good idea. but i wanted to ask whether or not you have done recent study in terms of behavior. how many people still not bring the bags? and where do we want to be? and to determine whether or not this 15 cent increase is necessary. and do we have any plant to take a look at that to see where we are today? >> thank you, commissioner.

supervisor brown that introduced this legislation. to your point, when the first legislation came forward to ban plastic bags in 2006 and the executive director was a legislative aide helping that come through. one of the things that the ten cents and why it was ten cents is actually this was the first plastic bag ban. and to really get to people to move forward and say this is something we need to address, it was 10 cents. it was arbitrary. it was something small we felt we could get through. 13 years later, plastic bag bans are all over this country. they have followed our lead. and guess what has happened? they charge 25 cents. santa cruz and other places have charged 25 cents for a bag. any kind of bag. and for that bag fee. and what they have seen happen

is the bag usage drops dramatically. like 90% in santa cruz. because of 25 cents. and so when we were looking at this 13 years later, and let's talk about inflation from 10 cents to 25 cents, it was something that we don't want to punish anyone on this 25 cents. because yeah, 25 cents can add up, but what we want to do is we want to encourage people to bring your own bag. and the thing with bags now, i mean, when this first legislation in 2006 pass and we had big bags and trying to carry them up stairs and three bags is like $2 of bags in your purse n your pocket, and you can carry bags so easy. there is such a variety of bags. and the whole idea toft 25 cents

is to bring down consumers to actually bring their own bag. that is really important. and with the plastic bag ban for me, is what has happened in the stores like whole foods? you go in whole foods in the produce and the bulk item, plastic bags are there. so they have found loopholes to bring plastic bags back. so i just feel the 25 cents, i don't want to punish anyone. but it has shown around the country if you and the usage of getting bags goes down dramaticcally. people change their ways. as far as home deliveries, i absolutely agree 100% with you that we should be looking at and

charging them because when we look at the environment and all the cardboard, the bubble wrap, the plastic, everything that they put in there to drop off at your door or food service at your door, we should actually also be charging them. and i agree with you. and we're going to work forward on that because that isn't fair, and they are a huge issue with our recycling and you have to understand that we talk about recycling, but we can't even really recycle anymore. there is nowhere to send our recycling. we don't have anywhere to send it. china is not taking it. indonesia said no more. and so where do we send it? we need to stop recycling and just need to refuse. so this is legislation that i know feels sometimes a little bit tight and could be painful.

but i don't think -- and i feel the rez reszs of san francisco will -- i feel the residents of san francisco will absolutely push forward, and for us is making sure people have free bags. that is something that i have been talking to a lot of people to give free bags and produce bags away at farmers markets and reusable bags. so i just really appreciate you, commissioners, listening in to this today. i take your input seriously. i really go and i would love this legislation to move forward and your suggestions on home deliveries, i am there with you. >> i think there will be another piece of legislation addressing that. if you have any questions for me, i'll be here for a few minutes. >> great. thank you. commissioner laguarna. >> supervisor, thank you for your leadership on this issue

and thank you for your leadership on the small business bill. i know simultaneously, ironically, you are trying to move through. i was very happy to hear you comment on the tech delivery side of things. i was going to back up the fellow commissioner who is had mentioned that and now i don't have to. and finally, i would just say on behalf of my colleagues, i think there's a lot of ptsd in the small business community over the past 10, 20 years. it's just been absolutely devastating. and incredibly difficult, and when thuf role, i think all of us take very seriously our charge, which is to protect small business, and do everything we can for it. and i support your