Paper Or Plastic
Once upon a time you had a choice of paper or plastic when you went grocery shopping. But increasingly, shoppers are choosing to “Go Green” by purchasing and reusing their own customized grocery bags. Part of the growing movement of sustainable living, shopping bags are the latest entry into the green movement. Anne Thompson, Chief Environmental Affairs Correspondent at MSNBC devoted a segment to the conundrum “Paper Or Plastic”.
Whole Foods has been providing brown bags for years that give consumers a 10 cent refund per bag when reused. Beginning March 15th IKEA began charging 5 cents for every "throw-away" plastic bag. All proceeds* from the first year of this program will be donated to American Forests, the nation's oldest non-profit conservation organization, to plant trees and offset CO2 emissions. Or, you can purchase one of their reusable IKEA Blue Bags for 59 cents. The problem with all this is that often, shoppers forget to take them to the store. That’s why today’s generation of shopping bags is designed to fold and fit into your purse or tote so there’s no reason to leave home without one.
The trend has gotten so big that the May, 2007 issue of Vogue Magazine has an article called “Sustainable Style” by Sally Singer urging its readers to “Go Green” by buying reusable and stylish bags for all their shopping. She says “Say no to plastic bags. Whip out your own brilliant alternative. Make people stare. Set a trend.” The article goes on to recommend several trendy alternatives for the shopping obsessed from a $960 Hermes bag that folds into a pouch to $15 Hindmarch bags that will be available at Whole Foods and Fred Segal this summer.
World Watch estimates that Americans deposit 100 billion plastic bags in landfills each year, while recycling only 0.6 of them. Each bag can take up to 1000 years to degrade, which equates to a lot of land taken up by plastic bags. Even if you recycle your plastic bags at the grocery store, it still takes energy to reprocess them. Imagine the impact on our environment if everyone purchased just one shopping bag and used it each time they shopped. Our planet would surely thank us. And besides, think of it as another form of self expression; like t-shirts and cars.
For further information on reusable shopping bags, check out these websites:
