Paper or plastic? The answer to that question is no longer so simple.
Introduced to grocery stores in the 1970s as a cheap alternative to paper bags, plastic bags quickly became the bag of choice for consumers.
Today, they’re known as an environmental scourge - clogging up landfills, choking marine animals and doing their eternal dance across the landscape.
Manufactured from crude oil and natural gas, both nonrenewable resources, plastic bags are not biodegradable and take nearly a thousand years to break down in landfills.
And paper bags aren’t much better. Even though they’re biodegradable, recyclable, and made from trees, a renewable resource, it takes a lot of energy to manufacture and recycle them. And that means more air and water pollution.
Whole Foods Market is aiming to end the use of disposable plastic grocery bags at the checkouts in all of its stores with the goal to be plastic bag-free by April 22. Yes, that’s Earth Day.
Most grocery stores now offer their own branded version of the reusable shopping bag, usually costing little more than 99 cents apiece. There are also numerous options for the more stylish eco-conscious among us. Reusablebags.com offers a large selection.
I recently bought a reusable ChicoBag at my local co-op store. It holds up to 20 lbs worth of stuff – whether it’s your groceries, your new shoes or a whole slew of paperbacks. It folds up into a tiny pouch that fits into your pocket or purse, making it that much less difficult to forget. And it’s cute. No fewer than three grocery store clerks admired it when I pulled it out of my pocket - unraveling it from its pouch with a flourish - and used it to bag my groceries the other day.
So the next time you go to the store to stock up on Arico’s delicious cookies and cassava chips, don’t forget to do your part for the environment and bring your own bag. Extra points for style.