The 6200 block of North Kenmore looks like any number of “nice” blocks around the city. It’s a pretty, tree-lined street, with a mix of old and new houses, apartments, and condo conversions. Parking is hard to come by. And there are plastic bags absolutely everywhere.

Plastic shopping bags have become one of the most visible environmental scourges of city life. According to some estimates, Americans use 100 billion of them a year, and consumers worldwide run through more than a million every minute. Not only do they often turn into unsightly litter, they also end up consuming landfill space, clogging sewers, choking hundreds of thousands of sea creatures, and very, very slowly—over hundreds of years by most estimates—breaking down into toxic chemicals. And of course they’re made from petroleum, so they exacerbate the many environmental and political problems related to oil production and consumption.

Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »

It’s hardly controversial to say something needs to be done. Like bottled water and SUVs, plastic bags have become a target of green-minded communities around the world. Ireland has taxed plastic shopping bags so heavily that their use there is down 94 percent. China, Bangladesh, and other governments have banned them altogether. Cities in the UK, Canada, and the United States have held “bag-free” days or introduced more permanent restrictions. And environmental groups—including some devoted exclusively to reducing the use of plastic bags, like the Chicago-based ReusableBags.com—encourage shoppers to bring their own reusable bags when they shop.

That’s what happened with his plastic bag ban, which wasn’t well received by the retail industry and didn’t gain traction with other aldermen. “If you don’t have 26 votes in the City Council, you can’t pass it,” says Burke spokesman Donal Quinlan. Burke’s ban was referred to the council’s committee on energy and environment, where it sat for about eight months.

After New York City passed a law in January that forces large retailers to set up plastic bag recycling programs, Alderman Laurino drafted a nearly identical ordinance for Chicago. Rather than ban nonbiodegradeable bags, like San Francisco’s law, it would require that stores with at least 5,000 square feet of retail space place recycling collection bins near their entrances, print a message on each bag asking the consumer to recycle it, report recycling data to the city’s Department of Environment, and offer consumers the option of buying reusable bags.

It’s currently almost impossible for individual stores to make bag recycling cost-effective, Vite says. Large chains, though, can do it: Jewel-Osco, with 184 stores, provides such a voluminous and steady stream of plastic, cardboard, and other materials, says spokeswoman Juanita Kocanda, that it’s been able to get a good deal from its recycler.