Article published August 13, 2007
Choose paper, not plastic
GROCERY store baggers always ask shoppers if they want paper or plastic. Earth-conscious consumers choose paper.
The reason they do, and the reason cities are adopting bans on plastic bags, is to protect the environment. There's a growing movement that could force more consumers to take paper bags, supply their own plastic bags, or else pay a hefty price for plastic, which are all good ideas.
Usually consumers can find multiple ways to reuse and recycle plastic bags. But even the most determined recycler gets annoyed about plastic bags, which seem to multiply in kitchen pantries. However, they are wreaking far more havoc than that. They are littering the landscape, clogging waterways, and choking wildlife to death.
Just count the number of times you've seen plastic grocery bags whirling in the wind and stuck in trees in neighborhoods, along roads, and in parks. Birds and other wildlife that try to eat them die. Marine life is also threatened when discarded plastic finds its way to rivers, lakes, and oceans.
The burden plastic imposes reaches beyond the environment. It takes 12 million barrels of oil to make the 100 billion plastic bags distributed every year. Considering that it takes plastic 1,000 years to biodegrade, it makes sense to use more paper.
No wonder more cities are considering bans. Annapolis, Md., is entertaining a proposal to keep retail stores from using plastic bags in order to protect marine life. It would force stores to offer consumers recycled bags. Not a bad idea, in view of the proliferation of plastic bags. And anyone who fails to take plastic bags to the store for reuse would simply get paper bags.San Francisco has enacted a ban for some stores, and Boston, Baltimore, and Portland, Ore., are considering measures.
But there are also other ways to convince consumers to get on the right side of this issue. Some stores are taking more persuasive action to compel consumers to use paper by charging a fee for plastic bags. And one grocer gives a 3-cent credit for every plastic bag customers return.
Not surprisingly, there are critics. Some want communities to better enforce litter laws. Good idea, until you have to figure out who to fine for stray bags. And sure, paper bags cost a nickel, more than two times the cost of plastic.
But choosing based strictly on price falls under the category of being penny-wise and pound-foolish, and Mother Earth surely knows better.
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