Just Brown Bag It! Or Should You?

San Francisco was one of the world's first cities to pass a ban on the use of non compostable plastic bags. It became fully reinforced by the end of 2012. 

Shoppers are now provided with recyclable brown paper bags at most grocery stores. This includes popular grocery markets such as Whole Foods, Safeway, and Trader Joe's.  The price is from 5 to 10 cents for a plastic or recyclable brown paper bag. 

If shoppers bring their own bags, some retailers like Whole Food's would provide a 5 cent discount on your total receipt for each bag you bring *. 

Not only is it a feel-good factor that you are no longer tossing plastic bags into wasteland, but you're also helping prevent marine animal deaths! 

So is this the right way to move forward and replicate in cities across the nation? 

Some stats: 

(Anti paper bags)

• Each year, Americans use about 10 billion paper bags, which results in the cutting down of 14 million trees
• Four times the amount of energy is used to manufacture paper vs. plastic bags
• 98 percent more energy is used to recycle paper vs. plastic bags
• 70 percent more air pollutants than plastic bags
• 50 percent more water pollutants than plastic bags
• Only 10-15 percent of paper bags are brought back to plants to be recycled

(Anti plastic bags)

• It is estimated that worldwide plastic bag consumption falls between 500 billion and 1 trillion bags annually. That breaks down to almost 1 million every minute.

• Plastic bags take 500-1000 years to degrade, in the meantime they sit in landfills
• The U.S. goes through 100 billion single-use plastic bags. This costs retailers about $4 billion a year. 
• Every square mile of the ocean has about 46,000 pieces of floating plastic in it. 
• Plastic bags remain toxic even after they break down 

At first I was excited about everyone in San Francisco supporting the paper bag movement. However, after doing research on the costs and benefits, I realize that paper bags are not a sustainable solution either. Although paper bags are way more biodegradable and less dangerous to the ocean; it costs more energy to produce and recycle than plastic bags. 

I predict that future is most likely in biodegradable plastic bags. However, a lot of gas emissions are created still when going about this method. 

Tote bags made from fabric is another option. Beware shoppers! Keep your tote bags clean, as this article claims that E. Coli has been on the rise since the increase usage of tote bags for groceries. Supposedly, harmful bacteria created from raw and open foods stick to tote bags. 

What do you think? Which do you prefer? Which do you think is more practical and earth friendly? 

==

Sources

1) Earth911.com

2) Huffingtonpost 

3) Science.howstuffworks.com

4) Reuseit.com