Paper or Plastic « 2006 Road Trip Across USA/Canada

Paper or Plastic? The innocent question we get asked when buying grocery every time. I always try to remember to bring some canvas bags so I can decline both as they are environmentally unfriendly, in different ways. If not, I would ask for paper hoping for recycled paper. However when we were on the trip, we were using paper grocery bags as garbage bags the first few days and they didn’t work well when wet. We had a few spells that we ended up asking for plastic. The plastic grocery bags worked well as our garbage bags. We would typically generate 2 to 3 grocery bags of garbage every day.

I read a book (cannot remember the book name) about how Goodyear invented the rubber by an accident. It was educational. He couldn’t get it to stay solid when heated until he accidentally discovered the Vulcanite process. Hopefully someone can accidentally invent an environmentally friendly rubber in the future which will self-disintegrate in due time. We had many beautiful hikes on the trip but hated when we saw garbage on the trail such as plastic bags. They were bad reminders of human prevasive intrusion into the wilderness and they will stay just about forever. Worse of all, they have killed and will continue to kill wildlife. We picked up a few but I hope everyone can be more conscious of the plastic impact.

ggwfung Says:

February 27, 2007 at 6:21 pm

if the moves toward biodegradable plastic had progressed we would be in a better state; unfortunately, people wanted their “plastic bags” for more things other than grocery shopping (just as handy carry arounds). So the plastics that degraded under sunlight and water over a few weeks aren’t widely used.

A plastic bag levy has been in place in Ireland for some years. Worth tracking down to see the effect it’s had on plastic bag usage and the possible positives to the environment.

All the little choices we make each day accumulate to the total effect.

ggw

Sumo Says:

February 27, 2007 at 11:48 pm

Yes, all the little choices we make does add up to a big result. For my family, we never purchase garbage bags in any size, we just get a small garbage can that is big enough for putting grocery bag in and use it as a garbage bags. We try not to use paper towel as much if we can do the cleaning with cloth towel, so it can be cleaned and reduce the need on paper product and save some trees. I think before I print at work so I would not kill more trees than I have to. It is very sad to know that we cut down more trees because what we do everyday without thinking.