Plastic grocery bag ban?

Portland is considering - and will likely pass - a ban on the use of grocery bags.

I'm not convinced that this is the correct approach.

I think it would be best for the City of Portland to require grocers to either use 100% biodegradable (compostable) bags, or charge $0.05 per non-biodegradable plastic bag.

This way, the money collected could be used to raise awareness of recycling non-biodegradable plastic bags (or to encourage recycling of said plastic bag by using the same refund method of aluminum drink cans), but also giving grocers the leeway to move to biodegradable plastic bags.

By moving in this direction, oil is still removed from the plastic bag equation, but also encourages the use of biodegradable plastic bags (as a secondary-use) to displace non-biodegradable plastic bags (as primary-use). Secondary use means less energy used to produce total number of plastic bags (think trash can liners and picking up dog poop), which is like a win-win situation, really.