Paper or Plastic? What is the Best Green, Eco-Friendly Choice?
Author: Pamela Palmer aka Green Keen
Paper or plastic? Plastic bags are not biodegradable, but recyclable. Paper bags are biodegradable, but cost trillions of trees! Which to choose? Neither, please!
What is Wrong with Using Plastic Shopping Bags?
They are reusable and recyclable, except that large amounts of oil are used to manufacture and recycle them. The Worldwatch Institute estimates that "Americans use 100 billion plastic shopping bags a year." Most of them are thrown away. Only a small percentage actually get recycled, less than 20 %. These discarded bags are filling up our landfills and oceans.
What is the Matter with Choosing Paper Bags?
The classic paper bag, while actually biodegradable, is still fraught with ecological problems. According to Christy Jones: "14 million trees were cut down to produce the 10 billion paper grocery bags used by Americans in [one] year alone." It may seem innocuous when you, as one shopper, get your paper bag, but multiply that bag, by 10 billion and that's a lot of trees sacrificed for billions of one-use, trashed items. Again, most end up piled in landfills, where without adequate light and air they won't decompose any time soon.
How Do We Make the Choice?
What's behind Door #3? Most stores now offer inexpensive, reusable shopping bags at their checkout counters. Often these bags cost around $1, sometimes a little more. They can be used repeatedly. They are washable. They have helpful handles.
Also, they hold more than the typical, plastic bag and stores will often give a few cents discount for using them. A small drawback is that sometimes they will have the logo of the store you bought it in—not so stylish. When shopping you may raise the eyebrows of a few cashiers, if you use a competitor's bag!
You Can Save The Planet!
Reusable bags can be just that: reused, again and again. They are often made of recycled items. They can save animals from sea turtles to whales, who mistake plastic pieces for food. And you can save the landfills from trillions of tons of trash.
High Fashion, Green Chic?
Reusable shopping bags may have started out plain and simple, decorated with grocery store advertising, but now, they have become big business and very chic! Martha Stewart regularly hosts various celebrity-designed recyclable bags on her show.
Green artisans online and in boutiques are creating beautiful and functional, eco-friendly bags, with prices ranging usually around $10 to $15 Here are a few interesting ones to try out:
The ChicoBag rePETe Original follows the Chico Original reusable shopping bag design but is made from 99% recycled content by weight! Each rePETe has uniquely accented handles with the phrase, "This bag is made from 7 plastic bottles!" Some ChicoBags are priced very affordably starting at $4.75 . (Click on this sidebar at BuyGreen.com)
Blue Q (Click on this Sidebar at HerbTrader.com) has a cornucopia of colorful, tongue-in-cheek, fun and beautifully-designed reusable shopping bags.
ACME Earth Tote: ACME EarthTotes, simple and earthy, are the same size as the standard paper grocery bag and have a lifetime guarantee. They stand up by themselves, a big help while loading groceries!
WhatsURbag: Manufactured in New Orleans. According to Treehugger Magazine, "These reusable shopping bags that support Americans, as well as, a green lifestyle, with emphasis on style." It is made from a newly designed, strong and flexible fabric, trademarked as "its-laS-tik"(TM).
Bags Made with Saris--a little pricier--but Fair Trade by Indian artisans--reusable bags created from vintage saris from Two Hands World Shop. Each one is unique, with a spectacular spectrum of colors to choose. These would be a special gift to an eco-friendly friend!
Happy Green Shopping and Green Cleaning! from Green Keen aka Pamela Palmer
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