Paper or Plastic? Every time you check out, you hear the question. But is it the right one? My answer is a resounding NO! "Durable or Disposable?" That is the question!
The paper bag and plastic bag industries are diverting your attention from the real question with their debates whether plastic or paper is better. Each has good-sounding arguments for using their product. Their common salve is that they can be recycled. And they can even be reused. So they say. It is a matter of degree. The real way to reduce is to use durable bags in place of disposable.
You can find durable bags on the internet, local stores, or help support this site by ordering our logo bags.
Disposable bags consumed this year:Five and Dime
Five shopping bags will last over three years of weekly use and save me from using more than 500 plastic or paper bags each and every year. Someone refuted me by saying they would need more than a mere five bags for a shopping trip. My answer, buy ten bags then. Maybe you will keep 1,000 bags from being used over the next year by doing so.
Another comment I have gotten is, "Why would someone pay $10 for a single shopping bag when the store hands out disposable bags for free?" My answer is that you have to ask yourself how free those bags turn out being in the full accounting. If we are killing wildlife, adding unnecessary greenhouse gasses and filling landfills with materials that will not break down even over a hundred years, is that really free? How much does that cost us?
Over 1.2 Billion Dollars of plastic grocery bags for one year in the U.S.
Do the interactive calculator on Paper vs Plastic at MSNBC.com and you will find that if every American family reduced the number of plastic bags by 10 a week, we would save over 12 million barrels of oil. Let's see...free bags...12 million barrels of oil at over $100 per barrel. How free are those free grocery bags??? Would that be about $1.2 billion dollars a year to produce the bags? Not to mention the clean up when they hit our environment.
Responsible Use
The hierarchy of responsible use is 1. Reduce 2. Reuse 3. Recycle. Everyone always thinks of recycling as the first answer when that is really the last step you should take. First, see how you can reduce your consumable products. Then see how many items you can reuse and reuse them until they cannot be used again. THEN recycle your heart out. Continuing to use petroleum products to produce plastic bags to lug our groceries home is just plain wasteful. Paper bags are not any better on the environment. Just shipping the paper bags to consumers uses a vast amount of carbon fuels and produces a frightening amount of greenhouse gasses. Durable cloth bags are the most eco-responsible choice.
What do you think?
Paper vs Plastic is just the beginning of this question. What are your thoughts on the use of paper and plastic bags? How many bags of either kind do you use every week? Do you recycle your shopping bags or pitch them in the trash? Have you considered purchasing a reusable shopping bag to take to the grocery store?
Read the Point/Counterpoint and then add your comments to the blog to let us know how you are using shopping bags and what you think of this growing national debate.
