Paper vs. Plastic

Posted by Jessica W

Way to go Massachusetts for putting together an agreement to reduce a third of the plastic AND paper bags grocers distributed in the state (and way to go for getting the grocers on board—not always an easy task).   

As plastic slowly makes its way into mainstream news and dinner table discussion we’ve seen an array of solutions to the paper vs. plastic question (outlawing plastic bags [yay] but keeping paper, taxing plastic, taxing both, etc).  From these solutions has stemmed a debate over which is “better” paper or plastic and long lists of facts (each with its own scope and measure of environmental impact) are cited to defend or denounce both. 

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m glad this is the topic of discussion and I’m glad we are exploring solutions, but sometimes I think the debate gets us away from the real question at hand.  This question is not which disposable convenience is better or worse, but how do we retrain ourselves to not need either.  People have survived for hundreds of years without throwaway goods, how is it that in a relatively short period of time we’ve become so utterly dependent?   

What I’d like to be discussing then is how do we come up with productive plans to reshape our approach to bags?  Because no one can remember to bring a bag to the store every time, but that doesn’t mean that we need to have an arsenal of disposable ones just waiting for us to forget.  Do we start a drop-off bin where you donate extra bags when you remember, and borrow when you don’t?  What kind of health codes are we going to have to follow to make this happen?  These questions and more were discussed last September at City Hall during a Plastic Bag Forum attended by Mayor Sam Adams but since then there has been little forward movement.

Now we want to hear from you oh faithful and plentiful blog readers. What are your thoughts and creative solutions on the matter?