Plastic Bag Bans: Do Pros Outweigh Cons?

The Chicago City Council voted today 36 to 10 to ban plastic bags starting next year. The ordinance prohibits large retailers from using plastic bags; it would not apply to restaurants and mom and pop stores.

The Retail Merchants Association says the measure will raise costs for retailers, put jobs in jeopardy and make businesses rethink setting up shop in Chicago.

Those are all concerns that San Francisco dealt with when it became the first major city in the country to issue a plastic bag ban in 2007.

Guillermo Rodriguez of the San Francisco Department of the Environment joins Here & Now's Robin Young to discuss how those concerns played out in his city.