Paper or Plastic?

I don't know how it is in your grocery store but it seems that several stores here are only offering plastic bags now. I tried to use paper as much as I could but I notice that stores are getting rid of the paper bags. Which is really better to use? Well, here are some interesting facts taken from the papernorplastic.com website.


According to the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), the United States in 1997 alone used 955,000 tons of paper bags. That means approximately 14.8 million trees had to be cut down.


According to the EPA, 11 barrels of oil are saved when one ton of plastic bags are reused or recycled. One ton is equivalent to approximately 132,000 plastic bags. And according to the ELC (Environmental Literacy Council), it is estimated that somewhere between 500 billion to one trillion plastic bags are consumed each year throughout the world. Can you imagine how many barrels of oil can be saved?


According to the San Francisco Department of the Environment, San Francisco shoppers consume about 50 million bags each year. An environmental study also shows that the city spends $8.5 million each year to dispose or remove bags from streets and storm drains.


According to the EPA, ELC, The Ocean Conservancy and many other agencies, plastic bags pose a threat to marine life. Sea turtles and whales have mistaken plastic bags for natural prey like jellyfish and squid. Ingesting plastic bags can cause blockage to the digestive tract which leads to starvation. In 2002, a whale washed up the coast of Normandy had 800 grams of plastic elements, including plastic bags, in its stomach.

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I would sometimes take the old plastic bags which were still in good condition to the store and reuse them... but I might buy me one of those bags that are mention in the website. :sillySmiley:

Our stores have plastic. But there are some that don't give bags out, they sell them. I never buy them. I recycle ones that I already have. If they don't want to pay to advertize their store, I'm not paying to do it!

It's more sturdy with both. Our stores here don't like to give paper bags, you actually have to ask for them. I think that is so stupid.

That's nice what your stores do Rhonda. :CoolSign:


Beckie

Rhonda wrote:

Our stores only have the plastic bags, but the Wal*Mart has a campaign going with all the area schools to recycle them. The schools are collecting bags and the one to get the most, gets a big money grant to their school. They announced the winner for this year a month ago, and the schools are already collecting for next year................a lot of people carry canvas bags for groceries, but I don't have enough canvas bags to carry my stuff, so I will donate my bags back to the elementary school in my area................

What she said.....

I use paper.

At the end of the day...despite all the controversy surrounding "paper vs. plastic"...paper comes from a renewable resource.

We just need to remember to "renew" that resource :)

Neither! We bring cloth sacks with us to the supermarket/stores and just wash and reuse them all the time. If only everyone did the same imagine how many trees would be saved and animals lives spared (due to their ingestion of plastic objects).

None; they're banned in South Australia; we have to use reusable cloth ones like these.

We have to pay $5 cents for plastic bags. Or we have to buy and re-use cloth bags