You may be amused to note that the first few times I heard this question, I thought it meant, "Will you be paying for this with bills or with a credit card?"
It depends on what you're talking about .... I'd rather use paper napkins than plastic ones, and your average high school football team would rather run thru a paper banner than one made from plastic cling film. But if I were a doctor, I'd want plastic gloves rather than paper ones.
I prefer plastic because I can reuse them in so many different ways, and paper (although I can recycle it and benefit our church) is easy to tear and is a great breeding ground for roaches if you don't clear them out regularly.
I'm starting to carry bags with me into stores to shop with whenever possible, so I can eliminate the issue.
I bring my own reusable cloth bags. They're way better for the environment than either paper or plastic (and which of those is worse is pretty much a wash). But more importantly, they're MUCH BETTER for carrying groceries because the bottom never tears out and spills your groceries on the garage floor, which happened more than once with both paper and plastic before I learned to stop using them.
Yeah. Cloth bags are absolutely the way to go. Or a backback, depending on your transport options.
Though if you recycle paper, and have paper bags left over from shopping, you can just put the paper in the bag and chuck it in the recycling bin. Plastic and cloth aren't as good for that.
Also paper bags are sometimes good for wrapping boxes you intend to ship if the box has something attractive pictured on it, and you're afraid it might be targeted by a thief.
Paper - doesn't slide around in the trunk like plastic bags do. The bag just sit there nice and perky and (if properly sacked) stuff won't spill out. You can carry more, per bag.
Plastic bags - feh. The handles turn into flesh-slicing threads, set them down and everything sort of slops out. They'll slide all over the trunk, tossing your goods hither and yon.
I'm not convinced that paper bags are, really, that harmful to the environment. Trees are a _crop_ - how much of our paper comes from old growth forests and how much from managed tree farms?
It's also possible that this is my background speaking - my dad's side of the family makes (or made) their living in and around paper mills, forestry and lumber jacking. Yep - they're the people that laughed at the tree huggers and ate spotted owls for lunch.
I don't understand why Greenpeace would mind paper that is genuinely sustainably harvested. So I don't see what they have to gain by lying and saying that it isn't.
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ericcoleman) wrote2008-06-19 11:16 am
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Paper vs. plastic
Nate
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I'm starting to carry bags with me into stores to shop with whenever possible, so I can eliminate the issue.
The right answer is "no"!
Re: The right answer is "no"!
Though if you recycle paper, and have paper bags left over from shopping, you can just put the paper in the bag and chuck it in the recycling bin. Plastic and cloth aren't as good for that.
Also paper bags are sometimes good for wrapping boxes you intend to ship if the box has something attractive pictured on it, and you're afraid it might be targeted by a thief.
But mostly cloth bags.
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Plastic bags - feh. The handles turn into flesh-slicing threads, set them down and everything sort of slops out. They'll slide all over the trunk, tossing your goods hither and yon.
I'm not convinced that paper bags are, really, that harmful to the environment. Trees are a _crop_ - how much of our paper comes from old growth forests and how much from managed tree farms?
It's also possible that this is my background speaking - my dad's side of the family makes (or made) their living in and around paper mills, forestry and lumber jacking. Yep - they're the people that laughed at the tree huggers and ate spotted owls for lunch.
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Which doesn't mean they're wrong, but .. Greenpeace is hardly a non-biased source.
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:)