Or do you use a reusable cloth bag? Why do you choose the one you choose?
Paper-- Not environmentally friendly because of the amount of water used to make the paper and some of the chemicals like bleach. Plastic-- Doesn't bio-degrade and uses petroleum in the production of the product. Non degraded plastics wind up in sewers, forests, and even the ocean where they are mistaken for food by sea turtles and other animals. Degraded plastics can be found floating in the pacific vortex washed up on beaches around the world, lakes, rivers and every other niche in the world. Cloth-- the choice of bags may or may not be a better option depending on the material used. Some cloth bags are polyester (plastic) some are hemp, some are cotton or lignen I use a combination of cloth bags, car trunk and Dumpster dived wooden produce boxes.
plastic has it's obvious hang-ups, however, many peeps fail to realize that the extra weight of the paper bags greatly increases the amout of fuel needed to transport them. Lose lose situation, just tuck your t-shirt into your pants and jam as much stuff down through the collar as possible. Its what the native americans would have done
Hi, Whether you know it or now, you asked a trick question. The truth is, you can't really recycle the plastic bags you get at grocery stores. Why? Because the bags are made from petroleum products, they're non-recyclable and non-biodegradable. Well, mostly, anyway. Some grocery stores do collect these bags and recycle them though alternate means. However, this is a very small percentage of the total number of plastic bags produced. According to the Christian Science Monitor, less than 1 percent of 100 billion plastic bags tossed each year get recycled. In an Ask Yahoo! column I wrote earlier this year, I found that the typical plastic grocery bag takes anywhere from 450 to 1,000 years to break down. The best solution is to bring your own bags. Thanks! Mike
