YONKERS, New York — Would you like paper or plastic? It's the question food shoppers are asked every day — a simple choice that even environmentally conscious shoppers at Whole Foods find confusing.

"I generally pick paper because it's more protective of the environment," one shopper tells us.

But all too often, convenience rules.

"You caught me on a plastic day," another shopper says. "Now I feel guilty." But should she?

Consumers find themselves between a rock and a hard place when it comes to paper or plastic. To find out what is best to do in the grocery store, we turned to Allen Hershkowitz of the Natural Resources Defense Council.

"It depends on where you live," he says.

Plastic bags threaten wildlife along the coasts, so if that's where you call home, Hershkowitz says the choice should be paper. In the heartland, he says it's plastic.

"I just assumed paper was the better choice — more environmentally friendly choice," our guilty shopper says.

But people don't realize how big a footprint the paper industry has.

Here's how paper and plastic stack up side by side:

To make all the bags we use each year, it takes 14 million trees for paper and 12 million barrels of oil for plastic. The production of paper bags creates 70 percent more air pollution than plastic, but plastic bags create four times the solid waste — enough to fill the Empire State Building two and a half times. And they can last up to a thousand years.

Plastic, because it's cheaper to produce, is the overwhelming choice of grocery stores across the nation — the average family of four uses almost 1,500 of these a year. San Francisco is limiting consumers' freedom of choice, allowing only biodegradable plastic bags, which break down over months rather than hundreds of years.

For both types of bags, the environmentalist mantra is the same — reuse and recycle. But the best choice, they say, is cloth or canvas, and BYOB — bring your own bags.

source: 10apr200

Comments on article by Paul Goettlich:

Who is this Allen Hershkowitz of the Natural Resources Defense Council? And how on earth can someone who claims to be an environmentalist state that plastic is OK any place on earth? 

I also doubt the data used in this article in comparing the energy used to make paper and plastic bags. For instance, I did my own study in which, for one year, I collected the little yellow plastic bags that the San Francisco Chronicle is delivered to homes in. Then I calculated the weight and volume for those bags delivered in just the City of San Francisco. The weight would be 25,615 pounds per year. And the volume would cover a football field to a height of 3'-6". And that was only one type of bag in one city. I guarantee that the data on grocery bags in San Francisco alone would surpass anyone's expectation. I also estimated that shoppers in San Francisco would save over $300 million by not using single-use bags and bringing their own when they shop.

The fact of the matter is that we should use neither paper nor plastic bags. We should always use reusable bags such as heavy canvas bags. The ones sometimes called boat bags are perfect. Their sizes can range from about the size of a typical plastic grocery bag up to one that can hold 2 paper grocery shopping bags worth of groceries without bursting at the seams. I have several that have lasted almost 30 years, even after carrying heavy carpentry tools to work. 

Everyone must stop using single-use bags — the ones they hand out at the checkout counter. We absolutely must bring our own bags from now on. There is no excuse. Maybe once in a blue moon we're allowed to forget. But making a habit out of the throw-away bags is quite bad indeed. 

So many times, thinking such as that of Allen Hershkowitz of the Natural Resources Defense Council only confuses people even more. We must be clear about the problem. It is that all plastics are bad. It matters not where they are, only that different damage is done. But all plastic is toxic. None of it decomposes back into a natural material. It only decomposes into continually smaller particles until it is only one molecule in size. And there it stays to do its damage on all of life.... and by golly Allen, not just fish!  :-) 

More ideas on alternatives to plastics. . .

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