The plastic bag debate

Jan. 25 - Whole Foods supermarkets will no longer offer plastic bags but environmentalists are skeptical about changing consumers' habits. Americans each use more than 330 plastic bags a year, most of which are thrown away. Manoush Zomorodi reports.

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News & Politics

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• business_GF
• plastic
• bags
• recycle
• Reuters
• environment

[hemphilarious]

This is such a big issue. New studies have shown that there is cross-contamination of food borne pathogens in reusable plastic bags. The issue now is to clean your resuables between each use and to use a single use plastic bag for meat, fish, and poultry.

[lucyinthesky16]

there was a tree outside of my dorm last year that i called "the ghost tree" because there were at least twenty plastic bags in it. i have no idea how they all got into that tree, but i got really depressed everytime i looked at it. :(

truth is paper and plastic are both bad. best way to go is reusable cloth bags. you could even make your own, or buy them for $1 at most places. i mean, i know you have to spend money, but what's a dollar? most spend more than that on gum!

[Opiman000]

Earthsense? that is your handle?

Um, okay. Well, I don't claim to have as much earth sense as you; however, even I would not argue over the red herring of paper vs plastic...

Re-use your cloth/nylon bags! People - how hard is it?

Who cares about the argument against paper bags? Seriously -- use neither -- reuse what u have.

[love2readbooks]

I am not an advocate for paper bags.

Why waste natural gas on plastic bags. I can see many more better ways to utilize that resource. Any time we waste our own resources, it requires us to depend further on foreign resources.

It is not terribly difficult to bring a cloth reusable bag to the store. I keep several compactly in my car at all times. Have you ever been to Sam's Club or BJ's warehouse? They don't provide bags. They give boxes from their products. All stores could do this?

[Earthsense]

You are wrong. Plastic bags produced in the USA are made from ethan, a by-product from NATURAL GAS, no foreign oil is used.

New technology has allowed plastic bags the chance to degrade, biodegrade or compost faster than paper without any toxins released into the air. Besides, paper bags release methane gases which is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions.

[love2readbooks]

When plastic bags degrade, they actually become more toxic over time. The little fragments that are left of the bags are often swallowed by animals and ultimately end up in the food supply. Not to mention the oil that is used to create the bags supports unsavory foreign policies. Try to give up your bag habit. It really is easier than you think.

[fluffychicka87]

plastic bags are gross

[flintstone9812]

long ago I complained to my senators about the hazards of plastic bags. the fence next to the local supermart and the field across from wally mart was covered with the horrible things. I had heard that animals get caught in them. Ducks and other aquatic birds get tangled and drown. The blasted things don't break down like paper so they stick around for a very long time.

The wind catches them, opens them like a parachute and only God knows how far they travel.