This is not going to save the world, but it is a small step that we should all applaud:

On Thursday, DiCicco and Kenney will introduce a bill that would ban regular plastic bags at supermarkets and pharmacies in favor of recyclable paper bags or new compostable plastic bags. And Kenney plans to introduce a companion bill that would ban polystyrene foam, commonly known as Styrofoam.

DiCicco said his legislation is modeled on a similar effort earlier this year in San Francisco.

"You walk into the store and buy a tube of toothpaste. It's in a box and they grab plastic bags and put it in them," DiCicco said. "There's no control on the number of bags they give you. The clerks don't pay attention to it. We're in a throwaway society for the last 40 years, and that's one of our problems. Packaging has gotten out of hand."

When I was in Germany last month, basically sequestered away, one of the only things to do was to walk over to the WalMart like supermarket (high entertainment!). I would peruse all the beer I couldn't drink, the chocolate I couldn't eat, and then settle on some delicious diet coke, go to pay, and despite my hands being full, I would rarely get a shopping bag from the checkout person. I could never figure out, nor ask, why the ladies couldn't just give me an effin bag. Then, finally, I realized that they were keeping them behind the counter because they charged you for each bag that you used.

It made sense- even if they were not costing out every externality- the store(s) were helping people remember that there are a lot of costs to using disposable bags. As Diccicco said, we are a throwaway society, and in a time of the coming global warming crisis, this is a small and smart step we can take to do out part in Philly.

Now, if we could only recycle....