it takes SEVEN TRUCKS to deliver the same amount of paper bags that ONE truck can carry of plastic
Posted on 01/23/2008 5:34:32 PM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
Looking out his office window Tuesday, Mike Dailey spotted something hanging in a tree.
It was a plastic shopping bag.
"Maybe that's part of the problem," said Dailey, an engineer with the city of Madison and adviser to the city's Commission on the Environment. "They're out there blowing all over the place."
Difficult for some cities to recycle and a trash collection nightmare, plastic bags have made it on the environmental hit list of some cities, and now retailers.
Whole Foods on Tuesday announced that it would end use of plastic in all of its stores. Stores will deplete inventory by Earth Day this year, April 22. Whole Foods stores will instead offer shoppers a reusable "Better Bag" for 99 cents made of recycled material, as well as paper sacks in a variety of sizes.
"I think it will be well received in the Madison market," said Madison store team leader Paul Sigmund, noting that about half of its customers already use reusable bags.
Madison's Commission on the Environment last month put the plastic bag issue on its list of topics to discuss in 2008 after hearing about other cities that have enacted laws to end or curb plastic bag use, including San Francisco and New York City.
The committee will gather information to help it consider recommending that the city enact some sort of plastic bag ban or retailer recycling requirement, or provide city recycling drop-off points.
"Only 1 to 2 percent get recycled, and the rest goes into landfills," said commission chair Jon Standridge. "They're difficult to deal with because they blow around and are considered escaped garbage."
In addition, most plastic bags are not made from renewable resources, Standridge said.
Although they can be recycled, Madison Recycling Coordinator George Dreckmann said Madison does not collect plastic bags for recycling because they wind themselves around the sorting equipment. Disposed plastic bags come primarily from retailers, but also newspaper wraps and dry cleaners, Dreckmann said.
There are environmental reasons to choose plastic. They're cheaper to transport to stores -- one semi of plastic equals seven truckloads of paper bags, Dreckmann explained.
But telling retailers they must stop offering plastic bags could be tough.
Wisconsin Merchants Federation President Chris Tackett said it's illegal. Recycling laws enacted in the 1990s pre-empts municipalities from going beyond state law, which does not call for such restrictions, Tackett said.
"More credit to Whole Foods for what it's trying to do, and along that line we do support what they're trying to do," Tackett said. "But we're trying to be consistent and don't want to have a hodgepodge of laws."
Dreckmann said you could argue, however, that plastic bags are not covered under the law.
"There's going to be a legal battle no matter what you do," Dreckmann said of an outright ban. "But I don't think there would be anything preventing us from enacting a law or ordinance to require those who distribute these bags to take them back and get them recycled."
A number of large retailers with stores here already voluntarily collect plastic bags for recycling, in addition to offering low-cost reusable bags. Roundy's Inc. has plastic bag collection receptacles in its Copps and Pick 'n Save stores and, soon, Kohl's will have collection bins in many of its stores.
Other grocers, like Madison's Willy Street Co-op, has never offered new plastic bags at its registers. The store has new paper bags and used paper and plastic bags for customers. But it encourages shoppers to bring their own bags, be they paper, canvas or plastic, or carry away groceries in backpacks, according to store general manager Anya Firszt.
Dreckmann agreed, saying the best solution to the plastic problem is not to use disposable bags at all.
"We're toying with the idea of getting some quantities of reusable bags to distribute because that's the best option," he said. "That's the kind of thinking I want people to get into."
“But we’re trying to be consistent and don’t want to have a hodgepodge of laws.”
PING! I see a pattern here where the other Nannies may not. ;)
I have shopped at Whole Foods since they only had one little store in Austin.
The enviro-weenies are schizo.
I’m not much of a hippie, but I do believe in conserving when it is practical and doesn’t affect business too much. Another thing people need to realize is how much paper is wasted with the distribution of mail catalogs that are usually discarded.
It is a private company doing what they think is best for their business.
Way to miss the target, guys. ;)
Kill a tree...choke a fish...one or the other will make a “Greenie” convulse anyway.
I’m not bitchin’ AT you,...I’m just bitchin’ OK? :)
I can’t afford the place...and I’ve brought boxes and bags for my grocery goods for DECADES before Whole Foods got their first clue. We have one in Madistan and I’ve cruised it a time or two with friends who are easily impressed.
Over-priced, IMPORTED designer foodstuffs. Think Whole Foods will reveal what they spend in shipping costs that negatively effect ‘The Environment’ to get their precious “organic produce” or “cage free eggs” or “designer” goat cheeses into your cart? That stuff is shipped in from far, far away. The majority of it is not locally grown, though at one point, back when the company had a soul, they did by local market raspberries from us. ;)
Piffle, I say! And I grow my own. I’ve gardened organically for 20 years. I keep laying hens. And I can’t stand goat cheese, after milking goats all summer as a kid and indentured servant on my Aunt’s farm, LOL!
Believe me, Whole Foods wouldn’t be doing this if it cost them dime-one to their bottom line; their shareholders wouldn’t HEAR of it! It’s a business first...and your “feelings” that you are “doing good” by shopping there is strictly marketing.
These people annoy me to no end. It’s ALL marketing, FRiends. Don’t be a sap.
Manufacturing paper bags requires more energy resources and generates more “greenhouse gases” than plastic bags.
We are certainly not running out of landfill space in the US.
This is purely a litter problem. Just enforce the anti-litter laws. Not just for plastic bags but all the other crap that slobs throw into the street or by the side of the road.
I wish there was a Whole Foods close to us. There IS a Wild Oats that was recently bought out by Whole Foods not all that terribly far from us, but still not as close as I would like. I still buy things from regular supermarkets. It would be prohibitive for me to try to go purist about grocery shopping, so on things that don’t matter, I go to Kroger or Save A Lot or even Walmart sometimes. - There’s supposed to be a bargain whole foods (Turnip Truck) in Nashville, but that’s just too far for me to justify. - Heck, at my age, just getting the few miles in to the regular store is about all I can do most times.
I’d rather people re-use plastic bags for poop scooping. I’d rather see a plastic bag in a tree than step in Rover’s droppings. Wouldn’t you?
Ah. In a perfect world... :)
Don’t worry. If they can’t ban plastic bags, they will find a way to chip both the bags and the person who last used them at the check-out line to track every bag across the nation and nail the offending polluters to the wall!
Big Brother can’t WAIT implement it on you and me. And you thought this foolishness was going to stop with smoking bans? With trans-fat bans? *SMIRK*
Amen to that! Unfortunately we're at the point where enforcement isn't enough, we need a cultural shift as well. I long for the days when littering just wasn't considered socially acceptable.
Those catalogs are produced from farmed trees and recycled paper that will decompose, and as long as the publisher makes a profit for the sales they generate, they are not wasted.
They let your food roll around the floor boards of the truck, or they are tied so tight the food must be cut out of the bags. Nothing stands upright, so prepared food items are often goulash before they get home.
Bring back paper bags, or as I like to call them: Luggage.
I just don't enjoy shopping at Aldi. To me shopping for my food should be as enjoyable as preparing it and consuming it. Food purchase decisions are the prerequisite beginnings of the culinary experience.
You just bypass the egg, and go straight to the hen?
it takes SEVEN TRUCKS to deliver the same amount of paper bags that ONE truck can carry of plastic
Many new cars have hooks for them in the trunk.
That's peculiar accounting. The unsolicited junk mail sent to me is most certainly wasted, at the production level, the transport level, and the waste level.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.