DEC 22

So victory for paper bags – they are the children of trees! – in the war against decadent, dolphin-smothering plastic. Except, like most wars, it is far from clear if it has left the world a better place. Wrap, the government-funded company set up to reduce waste, summarises the drawbacks of paper bags: while from a renewable source and biodegradable, compostable and recyclable, they require far more energy to make and transport than plastic, have less re-use potential and produce methane if dumped in landfill.

"Faced with the question of paper or plastic, the answer should always be neither," says Reuseit.com. According to a 2007 study (funded by US plastic bag manufacturers), it takes almost four times as much energy to manufacture a paper bag as a plastic bag. Paper-bag manufacture uses 20 times as much water as plastic and paper requires more energy to be recycled.

Cloth bags are far from perfect. An Environment Agency report this year found that a resusable cloth bag would have to be taken out 131 times to reduce its environmental impact to that of a single-use plastic bag. And despite all our fretting, plastic bag use has actually risen. Rather than pitching paper against plastic, we really need to change our habits. Apart from banning ourselves from buying more than we can carry loose in our arms, the obvious solution is a tax on all bags, an economic nudge that if we can't shop less we should at least reuse those bags stuffed under the kitchen sink.

When they introduced a tax on plastic bags in Ireland the consumption fell by 94% (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02...wanted=all) I think the key is not to replace plastic bags with cheap reusable bags that last a little longer and also end up in landfill but to invest in good bags. I am using kerribags (www.kerribag.com) for my shopping. They are very practical and sturdy. My cupboards were full of plastic bags and although I used to recycle them, recycling also uses lots of energy! The solution is reducing and reusing as much as possible!

Not only in Austin these bag maybe banned in all over the world.

I agree with the idea of adding a use-fee rather than banning altogether, though. How are dog owners now supposed to pick up after their pooches poop? But, I think this is another step in the right direction. Long uphill battle, but we must keep at it.

My wife uses colored plastic bags cut into strips and woven into a large carry bag which is sturdy and can be used for years, thus eliminating the need for either paper or plastic when shopping. Since the plastic was not ever recycled this seems to be the best of both worlds, and eliminates the need in her future for paper and plastic when shopping.

before we get carried away banning bags, we ned to train baggers to use the reusable bags made out of recycled plastic. Sotres do not like to use them. Clerks consistently pack the bags too full. I am worn out be telling each clerk, each week not to put 40 lbs. of cans in the same bag just because they fit.

I am a cashier and the reason we overpack the reusable bags is because people buy an entire cart full of food and bring maybe 4 or 5 bags. I am all for reusable bags, but if you want your bags packed light, bring enough bags! Also, bring bags designated for cleaning products and raw meat so you don't end up using plastic bags. We can't put a package of drippy raw chicken and a bottle of Windex in the same bag as your food.

Yea! I agree with the other poster that these need to be banned everywhere. I have used my own bags for years. It is not an effort at all to bring my bags rather than use those awful plastic bags.

The argument is more complex than you think. For example, if a bag is bio-degradable that isn't necessarily a green solution either. Firstly the manufacture of the bag may have a greater environmental impact, and secondly the fact that it releases it's CO2's into the environment faster than a non-bio degradable bag implies that it will probably have a more immediate negative impact than one that takes longer to degrade (imagine if we could make bags made of diamond - they would take hundreds of thousands of years to degrade, but would that really be a bad thing ?).

I grew up in South Africa, (a usually behind the times country) they started a system where you pay for every plastic bag you use. This was a huge wake-up call for people to bring with their own re-usable bags and save money. All the supermarkets sell re-usable bags at their tills too. Let's face it people respond quicker to the threat of losing money than the threat of harming the environment. I really felt the improvement after that.
Now that I live in Israel (a supposedly advanced country) it feels strange the way they throw thin plastic bags at you, and even if you wanted to use re-usables, if you forgot them you're in trouble because the supermarkets don't even keep them.
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