San Francisco officials say the city’s fast-food litter has gotten out of control. Thousands of impromptu picnics on bus benches, in public parks, and on city sidewalks have left the landscape riddled with abandoned wrappers, napkins and bags.
The question is, who should pay to clean it all up? San Francisco politicians want to add a fee at the restaurant register to cover the costs of fast-food trash removal. It’s a potentially lucrative proposal: a similar tax on cigarettes of 20 cents a pack was added to offset the cost of cleaning up cigarette litter, and that fee will generate about $2.5 million during the fiscal year-not exactly chump change.
“Fast-food wrappers are really the next biggest identifiable source [of litter],” Department of Public Works Director Ed Reiskin told the Board of Supervisors Budget and Finance Committee. The proposal will be considered in the next few months, officials say.
It’s creative thinking from a city that’s facing major budget trouble: San Francisco is looking at a $400 million deficit next year alone. But will residents balk at the idea? After all, the majority of consumers don’t litter, so the fee would essentially be paying for the transgressions of the minority. And adding a tax to food that’s intended to be low-cost is sure to rile up the industry. Which, y’know, is always good for public relations.