Just say no to both.Not only is every trip to the market an existential crisis these days, what you carry your purchase home in has become a modern moral dilemma. Both paper and plastic bags consume large amounts of natural resources and research has shown that the majority are destined for landfills and our oceans.
The Maui County Council just made this choice a bit simpler for us when they joined cities and countries throughout the world and unanimously passed the Plastic Bag Reduction Bill on Aug. 22. The legislation, introduced last July by Councilman Mike Molina, will prohibit the distribution of non-biodegradable plastic bags at the point of sale beginning Jan. 11, 2011.
Mayor Charmaine Tavares said she wanted to make sure that in these hard economic times, the bill would not cause an undue hardship on our small businesses, incorporating a “soft approach” that includes a reasonable timeline for the conversion to take place.
The passage of this bill means better days ahead for the environment, wildlife, and public health and safety.
All plastic products, many of the materials used to make the clothes you wear and the carpet you walk on, plus hundreds of the other products we take for granted, are made from petrochemicals as either a product or byproduct of the production process. Petroleum and natural gas are the primary sources of the key ingredients in all plastic. We are inundated by plastic products… and as we know now, plastic is forever. It does not biodegrade, but photodegrades into increasingly smaller fragments while emitting toxins into our food chain.
Are paper bags any better? Paper is more recyclable than plastic if you include the fact that paper can be composted and plastic bags cannot. But according to some sources, plastic grocery bags consume 40 percent less energy, generate 80 percent less solid waste, produce 70 percent fewer atmospheric emissions, and release up to 94 percent fewer waterborne wastes than paper bags.
In a survey conducted by the County’s Office of Economic Development, 92 percent of the businesses surveyed said they supported prohibiting the use of non-biodegradable plastic bags, and would be willing to stop using them in their business. Many akamai markets are already selling their own reusable bags at reasonable prices in lieu of paper or plastic.
And if you want to purchase a fancy canvas bag, from an energy consumption standpoint, they are 14 times better than plastic bags and 39 times better than paper bags, assuming that canvas bags are used 500 times during their life cycle.
Now the only thing standing in the way of our successfully karmic and sustainably green shopping trip is our ability to take the reusable bags into the store with us. Don’t fret—you’ll have three-and-a-half years of practice runs until the legislation goes into effect. In the meantime, reuse, reduce, recycle and remember—tote your reusable bags with you wherever you go.
We have a long row to hoe to weed plastic from our lives. A bag ban is a good start.