Wednesday, April 25th, 2007
The Pink Elephant in the Room....“How” Do We Make a Difference?
Paper bags are finally coming out from under the checkout counter and refreshingly, clerks are asking us the question “Paper or Plastic?”
Unfortunately, there seems to be a bit of hesitance to embrace paper or canvas as a bagging solution on the part of clerks in the marketplace who still want to use that convenient plastic bag and give us 20 of them with our order with 1 item rolling around in each bag. And still we don’t seem to mind.
What is the solution? Plastic bags have been ubiquitous for such a long time that we haven’t yet reconciled ourselves to life without them. But now the price of petrochemically based products is growing, legislation in San Francisco is pushing the issue, and as consumers we’re finally being guilted into changing our ways and going green.
Although the phrase “Paper or plastic?” seems like an innocent question, there is nothing innocent about the issue. Worldwatch Institute documented that the world manufactures 4 to 5 trillion plastic bags each year. Technically the bags are recyclable or returnable, but we all know how bedraggled these bags are when we get them home. Usually in a rush, we stuff them into another bag and they multiply like bunnies under the kitchen sink. In frustration, we sheepishly toss a pile of them out when the bag storing them gets full or we reuse them for taking out the wet and messy garbage from the sink to the trash can so it doesn’t smell up the garage.
So yes, we reuse them, but they ultimately go to the landfill and never decompose. Worldwatch documents that Americans use 100 billion polyethylene plastic bags and only recycle 0.6 percent of them. The rest often fly away, get entangled as roadside “flowers” and pollute waterways contaminating the environment with oily toxic substances.
Paper bags, bio-bags made of starch substances, and hemp or fiber canvas bags have been offered as environmentally preferable solutions, but all of these do require the use of natural resources to produce: fiber, water, electricity. However, most of the resources from which they are made are sustainable which makes them preferable. Paper is more likely to be ethically reused and recycled and the brown bags are at least the most attractive in a compost bin. Bio bags are still being technologically perfected. Canvas bags are sturdy and easily kept in the trunk of a car…but washing them after the grocery, the car trunk, and the kitchen exposure also consumes water.
So, think about trying a mix of solutions that works for your lifestyle. Reuse your gift bags for picking up less messy shopping items. Keep a stack of clean and neatly folded paper bags or some canvas bags in your trunk for weekly grocery shopping. Ask your grocery store not to tempt you by stocking plastic bags that are not compostable. Keep alternative and sustainable packaging options near your door so that you can start changing your own habits and hopefully the world will start to change with you.