country, though several nations charge for shopping bags, and New York City entertained the idea last year.

The commission wants the fee initially to apply only to customers at larger grocery stores. But it wants an option to later extend it to smaller markets, drugstores, department stores, hardware stores, dry cleaners, food takeout, newspapers and other bag distributors.

The supervisors could also determine how large the fee would be and how it would be applied. Supervisors are not bound by any part of the commission's proposal.

As a result of the commission's action, a private agency will be hired to analyze the impact of shopping bags on the city's budget and its environment and examine the impact of a bag fee on low-income people and large families.

The analysis is expected April 30, commissioners said. Depending on the results, the proposal of 17 cents could change, said Jared Blumenfeld, director of the city's Department of the Environment.

Many of the commissioners who spoke said their intention was not merely to increase revenue.

"We're not trying to just charge a user fee; we're trying to make a change in behavior," said Paul Pelosi Jr., commission vice president.

Blumenfeld said the fee was determined by dividing the total cost in cleanup, disposal and lost recycling revenue because of plastic shopping bags - about $8.7 million - by the number of bags dispersed in the city by large grocery stores each year, which is about 50 million.

Proponents of the bag tax also cite environmental concerns such as the number of felled trees for paper bags and barrels of oil for plastic bags as the basis of the proposal. They say plastic bags harm marine mammals, litter the city and are major contaminants in the city's recycling and composting program.

Opponents of the tax, including the American Plastics Council and the California Grocers Association, have stopped the state Legislature from imposing a similar fee. They argue that plastic bags, which make up 90 percent of all grocery bags, are used to make other goods like composite lumber and that the city instead should develop a recovery program for bags.

Tuesday's meeting allowed the public to comment, and all but three of the few dozen who spoke supported the idea.

"This resolution is an attempt to get people to take responsibility for their actions," said Joe Besso, recycling program manager for Norcal Waste Systems, which runs garbage and recycling services in the city.

Plastic bags are not recyclable in the city, and when they show up with other items they can prevent a whole batch of material from being recycled, he said.

Blumenfeld said such contamination cost the city $694,000 a year.

Those who opposed the bag fee cited the burden on poor people. The proposal includes a provision to subsidize the cost of bags for the poor, and some who spoke recommended a program to give away free canvas bags.

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