Paper or Plastic?

I mentioned that we went to the hardware store in Pittsburg yesterday. As part of their promotion, they gave each shopper a green usable bag.

When I cut the tags off, I noticed some surprising statements from One Bag at a Time printed on them.

• Just 14 plastic bags contain enough petroleum to drive a car a mile.
• Americans throw away an estimated 380 billion plastic bags a year.
• In manufacturing, paper bags emit 50% more global warming gases than plastic bags.
• Paper bags do not biodegrade in landfills.
• Cities spend up to 17 cents per bag in disposal costs.

I knew plastic bags are environmentally undesirable. In fact, a city councilman for the City of Dallas wanted to ban single-use plastic bags all together, but ended up with a compromise that will impose a nickel charge on every single-use plastic or light-weight paper bag that goes out of a store. Since customers are the ones having to pony-up for this charge, I can imagine they're not going to be happy.

 The statements about paper bags surprised me though, so I did a little research.

Lincoln Park Zoo had something interesting things to say about paper bags as well. Did you know, for example, that "in a modern closed landfill where air, light, and water are excluded, plastic and paper bags decompose at the same (extremely slow) rate"? Read the whole article "Paper vs. Plastic Bags" for the rest of the story.

And to think, all this time I believed that paper was better than plastic! Maybe this misconception was supported by the fact that our limited recycling drop-off place here won't accept plastic bags. But then, they won't take glass either, and I know that can be recycled!

I have a lot of reusable bags, mostly from vendors at paralegal events I've attended. The problem is that I keep forgetting to take them with me when I go shopping. I used to have them in the trunk of the car (I think some of them are still there), but I'd forget to get them out when I get to the store.

But even if you use the reusable bags, be aware that they have to be washed periodically, especially if you put meat (or lawn fertilizer) in them. Good tips on how to keep them safe can be found in an article I found on About.com. Oh, and the American Cleaning Institute warns people like me against storing the bags in the trunk of your car. I guess I need to get them out and wash them!