Tuesday, January 27, 2009

From Marc Fisher's blog, Raw Fisher, here's the second in our new weekly series starring Binary Man, who has come to our struggling planet to settle disputes and make life better.

Paper or plastic is mother's milk to Binary Man, one of the great dilemmas ever to break into the popular culture. Breathes there a soul who has not wrestled with this choice? Binary Man can't stand the question at the checkout counter, either, yet he has never forced himself to come to a definitive position -- until now.

Virginia legislators are mulling whether to ban retailers from stuffing goods into those flimsy plastic bags that have become a symbol of our wasteful ways. Legislators in Richmond are considering two bills, one that would force supermarkets and big chain retailers to offer only reusable bags, and one that would impose a five-cent fee on both paper and plastic bags, exempting only durable plastic bags designed to be used every time you shop.

Way too much brainpower has gone into efforts by scientists, advocates and policy wonks to figure out whether plastic or paper bags are more damaging to the air, water, soil, and our souls. Binary Man has learned the ins and outs of factors such as eutrophication, which is the degree to which paper or plastic bags disturb the nutritional balance of the earth's soil as they each sit in landfills. (Paper loses that part of the battle; the process used to make the bags emits considerably more carbon than making a plastic bag.)

The plastics industry churns out studies seeking to show that plastic bags are better for the environment even if they are made from fossil fuels, because the bags are frequently reused. And it is true that neither paper nor plastic bags decompose to any useful degree in the landfills where most of our trash ends up.

Plastic bags are much cheaper, which is why retailers cling to them. The Whole Foods grocery chain stopped giving out plastic bags last year, a move that dovetails nicely with the greenish tendencies of the chain's customer base. But there's not a lot of science to back up the idea that plastic bags are more damaging than paper ones, especially if you look at the energy that goes into making the bags (about five times as much is needed to churn out a paper bag.)

But paper advocates have strong points as well, pointing out that proportionately far more paper bags get recycled than plastic bags. The EPA says that about 25 percent of paper bags and 9 percent of plastic bags are recycled.

Virginia is by no means the first jurisdiction to consider this path. San Francisco (of course) banned retailers from dispensing disposable plastic bags in 2007, to the dismay of the plastics industry. Somehow, life and commerce continue there.

But most studies offer little persuasive evidence that we will lead healthier or morally superior lives by choosing either paper or plastic. Rather, the way to make a big difference in what ends up in landfills and oceans is to dramatically reduce the number of bags being thrown out -- whatever their composition. The way to do that is to push consumers to do as our counterparts do in many other countries -- bring their own dang bag to the store.

The argument against this is that we as Americans are addicted to convenience and cannot be bothered to carry our own bags. But even before governments got into the act, many Americans were already learning to eschew bags. Price Club -- later Costco -- has left customers to fend for themselves when moving groceries and dry goods to the car. Far from getting huffy about it, most folks seem to like the idea.

Of the two bills now in committee in Richmond, the more promising, from Del. Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria), would impose a nickel fee on all but reusable bags. Even in ultra-green Germany, you can get a disposable plastic bag at the checkout counter, but it will cost you enough to make you think twice. Outright bans only alienate consumers and create backlash. In some places where plastic grocery bags have been banned, there's been a marked uptick in purchases of plastic garbage bags. What good has been accomplished there?

The key is to take advantage of people's desire to do the right thing. In the end, whether bags are paper or plastic doesn't matter much. Binary Man will declare progress to have been made when shop clerks give you the evil eye if you insist on buying bags rather than using your own.

Each week on the Raw Fisher blog, Binary Man confronts some issue that bedevils us. Send your questions and ideas to BinaryMan@washpost.com.