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Shifting Shoppers: Paper or Plastic?

By josh donlan on April 6, 2008.

paper.pngPaper or plastic? You know the drill. Well if you live in Seattle, you might want to throw those cloth bags in your trunk so you won't forget them. Otherwise...it will cost you. Seattle mayor Greg Nickels put forth a proposal that would charge Seattle shoppers a 20-cent "green fee" for every new paper or plastic bag. A similar program in Ireland reduced disposable bags by 90 percent. Clearly, the mayor understands what incentives many Americans respond to. And of course, the green fee will make a handy revenue stream for the city. Even better, revenues will be used to distribute free usable bags to Seattle households. Hats off to Mayor Nickels and Seattle. Let's hope other cities quickly follow.

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I'll gladly pay the nickel now and then - i use shopping bags as my garbage bags, and that is a huge savings over buying garbage bags. I don't think i've bought a garbage bag in 5 years, but i do have to make a point of not using my resuables once a month or so to restock my supply :)

Halifax Regional Municipality in Nova Scotia may soon ban plastic shopping bags. HRM has a pretty good start on garbage collection. A few years ago they issued a compost collection cart for every household, into which all organics (meat scraps and oils included), plus boxboard can be placed. This is collected and composted by the municipality. They also collect recyclables, including glass, plastic, corrugated cardboard, egg cartons, paper, and have placed a limit on how many actual garbage bags they will collect weekly per household.

A weakness in this system is the dependence on plastic bags to hold the recyclables and paper (and any garbage).

At least two grocery chains here actively encourage reuseable cloth bags, selling conveniently sized ones at the checkouts.

People's habits can be changed. There were strong objections to the compost bins to begin with, but they've become routine quickly.

Mabye they could use some of that "green fee" to clean up some of that lost fishing gear that seems to be doing so much damage to the sea life out in Puget Sound.

I started using cloth bags about 6 months ago. Both major groceries in town sell cloth bags at the checkout, but they're more expensive and larger than the plain ones I bought at the Hobby Lobby in various sizes. I was pleasantly surprised to find the Albertsons credits me 5 cents per bag when I bring them, and since they are closer I usually shop there. I think this is a great way to do things for the moment. Until more people get used to the idea, and see how positive it is, there's no reason to punish people who haven't jumped on the bandwagon yet.

I was pleasantly surprised to find the Albertsons credits me 5 cents per bag when I bring them, and since they are closer I usually shop there..