Neither one please

Paper or plastic, which should you choose? Oregon Sen. Mark Hass believes the answer to be paper. He feels so strongly that he spearheaded a bill aimed at making plastic bags illegal throughout the state.

Hass subsequently dropped the bill, but not because he changed his mind. According to The Oregonian, Hass stated that plastic bags are far worse for Oregon’s environment than paper ones, and that his bill initiated necessary conversation about the topic.

According to the Food Marketing Institute’s 2008 research article on the issue, paper bags have a much larger carbon footprint than plastic bags. This is because it takes four times more energy to produce paper bags, and the process itself produces 70 percent more air pollutants and 50 times as many water pollutants.

Not so fast, though: Plastic bags are made from polyethylene, which means crude oil and all of the side effects from that industry. They also pose a litter problem, as they are light and tend to fly away. This is especially hazardous near the ocean where they end up hurting or killing wildlife such as turtles and sea birds who attempt to eat them and choke.

If a paper bag is littered, it will simply decompose, which seems like a major plus, but it will release methane as it does. Plastic could win the environmental war if it is always recycled, but always seems like a really tall order. With all of this conflict, what is a tree hugger to do?

Purchase reusable shopping bags! Most stores sell them, and many give you a small monetary credit each time you use them. It costs retailers a lot of money to supply all of those free, single-use bags, especially the paper ones. Many reusable bags are bigger than either their paper or plastic equivalents, with nicer handles and more durability. You can pack them full and they hold up time and time again. You can even launder them when they get dirty.

It’s hard to believe there is any controversy here. It saves the stores money, it saves the environment, and it saves the shopper the irritation of crappy disposable bags.

Some opponents of regulating single-use shopping bags believe that they have a right to use whatever kind of bag they want and don’t want laws telling them what kind of bags they are allowed to use. However, there is no law saying that retailers have to give out bags at all. Retailers like Costco have found one way to help keep prices low—by not providing bags at all.

The controversy generated over proposed legislation of single-use shopping bags makes it seem like they have been around since the beginning of time and it would be impossible to continue life without them. In fact, the paper grocery bag is less than 100 years old and the plastic shopping bag is just over 30. In 1912, St. Paul, Minn., grocer Walter H. Deubner invented paper shopping bags and sold them for five cents apiece. He figured that if his customers had a means to carry more, they would buy more. Plastic bags entered the market in 1977 and by 1996 four out of five grocery bags were plastic, according to the FMI.

Free single-use shopping bags are a relatively new phenomenon; airplanes were invented nearly 10 years prior to the first shopping bag. No doubt our dependence on them is a product of our over-consuming, disposable lifestyles. The best alternative for the retailers and for the environment is to not provide them at all. Or, if they are provided, there should be a charge for them in order to encourage customers to bring their own.

According to The Oregonian, 12 U.S. cities have banned plastic bags, starting with San Francisco, Calif.  Washington, D.C., is charging five cents per bag as of Jan. 1 of this year.

The Worldwatch Institute Web site reports that China has reduced its plastic bag usage by 66 percent because they banned retailers from passing out free ultra-thin plastic bags, which are the worst culprit for litter. The ban also saved China 1.6 million tons of petroleum that would have been used for production of plastic bags. Mumbai, India, has banned plastic bags for litter reasons since 2000.

The FMI reports that in 2002, Ireland put a tax on plastic bags, which as of 2007 was .22 Euros, or 34 cents per bag. This tax reduced plastic bag usage by 90 percent. The FMI also states that taxes on plastic bags are implemented in Italy and Belgium, and bags are sold for a fee in Switzerland, Germany, Holland and Spain.

Sen. Hass is right in starting the dialogue about disposable single-use shopping bags, but let’s not stop at hating plastic. If we truly want to make a difference, no bags should be provided free of charge.