Plastic or Paper - Which is better for the environment?

[Catatonic]

Inspired by a post by Browndevil in another thread in which he asked "Plastic or Paper" at the grocery store.

Here, in GA, the national chains sell the cloth bags that you bring in to bag your groceries and you use them over and over.
$1 each and they hold about twice what a plastic bag holds.
Other wise, it's plastic or plastic and they are all the same color.

Piggly Wiggly still has paper bags an we get paper when we go there (none in our hometown).

I personally use the plastic bags to carry off our "spoil-able" trash off - I usually take them back to the grocery store or the gas station.
We recycle all cardboard, cans, plastics, newspapers, etc. and I drop them off at the recycle station once every 3 months or so.

PS- We live out in the country and we have a 650 concrete driveway with a gate so we can't get any of the garbage collection companies to drive up to our house to get our trash.
I've offered them $50 / month (over 3 times their rate) but none of them will do it.
None of these garbage collection companies support a recycle program either ... I find that interesting.

 

[dilligaf]

Neither are probably that good for the environment. LOL We vary. Sometimes paper, sometimes plastic. Now that you inspired me to use the Solar City totes (5 total) I will use those. Hubby won't though. Go figure.

 

[moreluck]

The choice is carry 6 paper bags or 2 plastic ones. Plastic please. And they line my smaller waste baskets, serve as poop bags and bags for the garage sales.

 

[cachsux]

serve as poop bags

It'd probably be cheaper in the long run to have a toilet put in.

 

[over9five]

It'd probably be cheaper in the long run to have a toilet put in.

And I've found that the plastic bag as toilet paper does not clean very well.

 

[moreluck]

It'd probably be cheaper in the long run to have a toilet put in.

OMG! I really let down my guard with that one..........the bags are for Mocha's poop when we take her for a walk, we have to pick up her mess!!!

Do you just lie in wait for a screw up and then pounce????

 

[cachsux]

OMG! I really let down my guard with that one..........the bags are for Mocha's poop when we take her for a walk, we have to pick up her mess!!!

Do you just lie in wait for a screw up and then pounce????

A profesional smartass never reveals his secrets.

 

[cachsux]

Here you go, More.

 

[moreluck]

My dog would be mortified to wear a contraption like that!!

I could see it for horses pulling a carriage though.

 

[raceanoncr]

Use paper here cuz I got pickup truck and like to haul everything, even groc, in the back. The plastic are useless there. Stuff scatters all over.

We recycle when we can but don't make a concentrated effort...not when I see every American company, including the government, using more and more paper in this computer age.

Here, yeah, we're REALLY saving with recycle. On collection day, we got one truck for garbage, one truck for recycle stuff and one truck for yard waste...3 trucks in same 'hood every collection day. Now THAT'S going green.

 

[moreluck]

Use paper here cuz I got pickup truck and like to haul everything, even groc, in the back. The plastic are useless there. Stuff scatters all over.

We recycle when we can but don't make a concentrated effort...not when I see every American company, including the government, using more and more paper in this computer age.

Here, yeah, we're REALLY saving with recycle. On collection day, we got one truck for garbage, one truck for recycle stuff and one truck for yard waste...3 trucks in same 'hood every collection day. Now THAT'S going green.

Did you ever follow the trucks and see if they all dump in the same place???

 

[soberups]

Paper all the way.

We do have a whole bunch of the reusable $1 cloth (actually recycled plastic) tote bags for groceries, but about half the time I forget to bring them with me, so when that happens I request paper bags. Paper is recycleable, it is made from a renewable product, and it will biodegrade in the ocean or in a landfill instead of floating around for hundreds of years.

If I were king I would outlaw plastic grocery bags, and require a $2 per bag charge for paper bags in order to "motivate" people into choosing the reusable ones. I would also require a $5 or even a $10 deposit on those big plastic laundry detergent and bleach bottles, and have the products available in the store in 55 gallon bulk drums. If you wanted to buy a gallon bottle of Tide liquid detergent, you could (A) just buy a bottle and pay the $10 deposit on it, or (B) bring your old bottle back to the store and exchange it for a new one, or (C) reuse your old bottle by filling it up yourself from the bulk drum. It is idiotic to make a 1 gallon plastic bottle that will get used one time and then wind up in a landfill for centuries.

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

It is idiotic to make a 1 gallon plastic bottle that will get used one time and then wind up in a landfill for centuries.

Why would the empty container end up in the landfill? Those containers are recyclable.

One of our local waste haulers offers Zero Sort Recycling. They provide both trash and recycling bins to their customers. Recyclable items are simply tossed in to the same bin and then hauled away to a special processing center. What is sad is that even though they have made recycling extremely easy some of my neighbors still either refuse to or can't be bothered to recycle.

Zero-Sort® Recycling | Casella Resource Solutions

The local bakery outlet store that I sometimes shop at does not offer either plastic or paper bags. Customers must bring their own or can purchase reusable bags for $.99 each. I always forget and end up making two trips out to my car.

 

[moreluck]

I read a news story where all those "green" people were getting salmonella on those cloth bags. The remedy would be to put the meats in plastic bags first....kind of defeats the purpose or, wash the bags!

Paper, plastic, or E. coli? Study: consumers, wash those reusable grocery bags! - Syracuse Food | Examiner.com

 

[raceanoncr]

Did you ever follow the trucks and see if they all dump in the same place???

Not yet, but did witness, one day, the garbage truck toss the YW bags in with the garbage. YW guys probably put in for 8 hr request, huh?

 

[cachsux]

Why would the empty container end up in the landfill? Those containers are recyclable.

IF there is a recycling program in place through the waste carriers. It does little good to segregate items if the carrier just chucks them all into one truck to be dumped alongside each other at the landfill.

 

[rod]

Around here if its only an item or 2 they won't even give you a bag. I used to volunteer 5 times a year for our local township recycle collection day held every other Saturday (now its a paid job I do). The majority of the people who come to our recycle day are 50 plus years old. Very few young people can be bothered with saving their planet). I also pick up trash in the ditch on our road when I see it. Most of the trash consists of fast food wrappers and drink cups---(I'm sure grandma isn't throwng them out of the car window.) I just laugh when some kid crys about my generation screwing up their future.

 

[DS]

PS- We live out in the country and we have a 650 concrete driveway with a gate so we can't get any of the garbage collection companies to drive up to our house to get our trash.
I've offered them $50 / month (over 3 times their rate) but none of them will do it.
None of these garbage collection companies support a recycle program either ... I find that interesting.

OK I gotta ask...since you go out that gate every day,why can't you take your trash to the road?
Here in Toronto,about 2 years ago they started charging 5 cents at the store if you wanted a plastic bag
in hope that people would bring their own...well that was thrown out after they realized that all it was doing was making rich people richer.Then they wanted to ban them altogether.Thud.
We recycle too but since I'll be dead in 25 years at best,I really couldn't care less.
Every bloodything is made from plastic,I doubt if plastic bags make up more that 1 100th of a percent of
the crap that ends up in landfills and stuff.
Besides, the significant seven of Orion will soon be arriving and begin cleansing the world and changing life as we know it.Mark my words.

 

[Jackburton]

Here you go, More.

Don't let management see this, they'll be bidding these out in China before you know it.

 

[gingerkat]

Back to the bags… here in Los Angeles county all plastic bags are supposedly banned (Target still uses them, but not the grocery stores?) as of January 1. Now if you want a paper bag it will cost you .10 per bag.

I prefer paper, but I wish the stores had handles on them like Trader Joes. Oh well, that's life as a Californian. I've been recycling all my garbage for years now, so it's not that big of a deal.