The streets of San Francisco have gone from mean to jolly green with chic eco venues and the city’s enviro-warriors on patrol.
It’s hard to forget the plastic bag scene from the 2000 Academy Award-winning film American Beauty. The sight of a mundane object elevated to a thing of beauty merely by the wind – and the artfully angst-ridden ministrations of a teenage boy’s video camera – was so extraordinary that scriptwriter Alan Ball went so far as to thank the plastic bag in his Oscar acceptance speech.
In pro-eco San Francisco today, such a scene would be greeted more in horror than wonder. In March 2007, San Francisco became the first US city to ban plastic bags. Grocery stores had to cease using them by November 2007, while pharmacies had until May 2008 to comply.
In a city where a reported 180 million plastic bags were distributed annually, this is significant. And it’s just one of the many sustainable measures San Francisco’s leaders are undertaking. As well as the once ubiquitous rustle of plastic shopping bags, polystyrene food containers have become ghostly figures from a less eco-friendly past. In June 2007, the city banned the use of polystyrene takeaway products entirely, with businesses now having to favour compostable or recyclable containers such as those made from corn products or recycled paper.
It doesn’t end there. All city departments and agencies have been banned from purchasing single-serve bottles of water. Mayor Gavin Newsom has pledged to convert the city’s entire taxi fleet to hybrid or alternative fuel vehicles by 2011, while all city-owned diesel vehicles have been converted to biodiesel. San Franciscans are already avid recyclers, but the city’s goal is to raise the current recycling rate of 67 per cent to 75 per cent by 2010.
It is clear the city once famous for free love and “flowers in your hair” has a seriously green attitude. There’s even an eco-dating service for singles wanting to find a mate on the same eco-wavelength, a growing group of eco-cool trendsetters who have been dubbed “ecosexuals” by local magazine San Francisco.
At any branch of organic supermarket Whole Foods, or the popular local organic retailer Rainbow Grocery, those who neglect to bring their own canvas shopping bags will receive scowls of disapproval from fellow shoppers.
With such a visible green movement, it’s difficult for travellers to San Francisco not to contemplate the environmental impact that their visit will have on the city. Fortunately, there are many eco-savvy businesses that make acting in an eco-friendly fashion relatively effortless. From the sustainable farming-focused menus of high-end restaurants to the wares at eco boutiques that also manage to be chic, San Francisco’s eco-forward attitude is something that can be wholeheartedly embraced – even by those who are just passing through.
Stay
Orchard Garden Hotel
466 Bush Street, San Francisco, California, USA.
+1 415 399 9807.
Shop
Eco Citizen
1488 Vallejo Street, San Francisco, California, USA.
+1 415 614 0100.
Spring
2162 Polk Street (at Vallejo), San Francisco, California, USA.
+1 415 673 2065.
Eat & Drink
Jardinière
300 Grove Street (at Franklin), San Francisco, California, USA.
+1 415 861 5555.
Mixt Greens
120 Sansome Street (between Pine & Bush Streets), San Francisco, California, USA.
+1 415 433 6498.
Yield Wine Bar
2490 Third Street (at 22nd), San Francisco, California, USA.
+1 415 401 8984.
Source: Qantas the Australian Way February 2008
Updated: July 2008