Paper or Plastic?

The MetroWest Daily News leads off on their front page today with a story on the age old question of paper or plastic? Unsurprisingly, feelings are mixed.

Plastic is far cheaper, which is why often the store will start bagging with plastic unless you tell them otherwise. I'm hardly even asked anymore; I have to stop the cashier and say, "Paper, please."

Paper, on the other hand, is bio-degradable. Plastic takes centuries to break down, but paper is gone much more quickly. Both are recyclable, of course, but not every bag makes it to the recycling bin, so the long-term effects should be considered.

Why do I go for paper? It's much easier to recycle paper bags. In Natick, they get picked up at curbside, wherease plastic bags have to be taken back to the store and put in their recycling bin. I rarely remember to do so, frankly. They build up in a cabinet in my kitchen and just make a mess. Plus, in the rare event that I don't actually recycle them, I'm much more comfortable throwing away a bag that will break down quickly.

Plastic is widely seen as more convenient. The article cites one woman saying, "I think [plastic] holds the food better." I think the real convenience issue is the handles on plastic bags. Paper bags almost never have handles (Trader Joe's being a notable exception).

If paper bags had handles, I think we'd see a much broader acceptance of them. In the long run, this can only be to the good of our environment.

"Paper or plastic?" Paper, please.

Update: BlueMassGroup has an extensive discussion of this topic that's worth reading all the way to the bottom. A couple of facts in there have given me cause to reconsider my stance, most notably that plastic bags take significantly less energy to manufacture and recycle.

Three relevant points to this: More energy to produce is not necessarily a bad thing. As is pointed out in that thread, that energy could be green energy. But there's no getting around the fact that you need petroleum to make plastic bags.

Secondly, a paper bag can hold far more than a plastic bag. If packaged right, it can hold three, maybe four plastic bags' worth of goods.

Thirdly, paper is still far more convenient to recycle, and will remain so until curbside recycling picks up plastic bags as well. In Natick, at least, it does not; recycling plastic bags still has to be done at the grocery store, which means for most people, it simply won't happen. They'll throw them away first.

Until things change, paper is still my choice.