Dead Trees Are Better Than Plastic
Have you ever been online at the grocery store, nervous as hell, biting your nails, just dreading that fateful question, Paper or plastic? Well, some Brooklyn lawmakers are trying to relieve some of the pressure by making that decision for you.
Assemblyman William Colton is vying to have the state of New York join San Francisco's recent move to [prohibit large retailers from offering plastic bags] at checkouts. But I return my plastic baggies to the grocery store for recycling, you might say. Well Colton claims that getting rid of plastic bags altogether will do the environment good by cutting down on street litter (because nobody throws away paper bags, right?) and landfill waste AND helping to decrease our dependence on foreign oilflippin evil plastic bags.
If passed, the proposed ban would [take effect in 2009], and require large stores to offer recycled plastic that is biodegradable, recycled paper, reusable cloth bags or compostable bags made of cornstarch (cool!). Corner bodegas and other small stores would remain free to offer customers just as many darn plastic bags as they like, as they are in San Francisco, because, as with most things green, the ban would mean higher prices, according John Catsimatidis, the chairman of the [Gristedes supermarket chain](http://www.gristedes.com/). He estimates the current plastic bags used cost about a penny each, while paper bags can cost three or four times as much. So people who cant afford to shop at places with fancy cornstarch bags would have to shop at the bodegas, and those who can afford to save the world would go to Whole Foods. What will have changed?
Photo courtesy of [polandeze on Flickr]