When going to the grocery store, which should you choose? Which is more enviormentally safe?
2007-01-02 09:28:06 · 8 answers · asked by Anonymous in Environment
Both can be recycled. But I figure it's easier to grow more trees than it is to clone dinosaurs.
And kudos to those advocating using their own cloth bags. I keep one in the car lest I forget. It holds a lot of groceries!
2007-01-02 11:30:18 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
This answer will surprise a lot of folks. Grocery store bags are nowadays made from recycled paper and if trashed would biodegrade in a beneficial way. The kicker here is that if everyone selected plastic then the recyclers would have no need to recycle the waste paper products into grocery store shopping bags. So using paper bags creates the demand which keeps it all going. Most plastic bags take a long time to biodegrade in the environment but they can be recycled too. The energy consumed in the recycle process is a nit not strongly favoring paper over plastic or visa versa.
2007-01-02 17:42:31 · answer #2 · answered by pilot 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Paper is better because it can be recycled in most areas, and because it requires fewer fossil fuels to manufacture it. A strong plastic bag is reusable, but they are only recyclable in some areas, and they do not disintegrate but rather poison and strangle wildlife. Paper will disintegrate into the earth if discarded. The manufacturing processes for both paper and plastic bags produce toxic runoff that poisons rivers, and both use fossil fuels and non-renewable materials. The most environmentally safe method is to take your own strong and reusable bag made of cotton, linen, hemp etc. I got mine for two bucks from the local library -- it's awesome. It can be washed, and it has double stitched handles.
2007-01-02 17:37:44 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well it really depends on which you'd rather preserve. Paper, obviously, comes from trees, whereas plastic comes from peutroleum. I think I spelled that wrong, but anyway, you have the choice.
P.S. The good thing about paper is that it can be recycled or broken down so it takes up little or no space in a landfill... just another point I'd like to make.
2007-01-02 17:36:41 · answer #4 · answered by Ask Tara 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Paper...but I do have a friend that simply brings his own cloth bags and reuses them whenever they are grocery shopping and THAT seems like the most economical.
2007-01-02 17:42:42 · answer #5 · answered by Nick K 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Paper.
2007-01-02 17:35:57 · answer #6 · answered by Lil' Gay Monster 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Paper, by far. All paper is recycleable, most plastic is not. If you dont recycle or reuse the paper when you are done with it it makes not difference which is better. SO RECYCLE!
2007-01-02 17:37:40 · answer #7 · answered by e_schwag 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Paper...it's biodegradable.
2007-01-02 17:35:59 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋