Paper or plastic?

How long have we been asked that question in the checkout line at the grocery store? I suppose it started not long after 1977 when plastic bags came onto the scene. Most do not opt for the paper variety as it was reported that more than 100 million plastic bags were used last year in America alone. That statistic is generating new initiatives around the country, such as a proposed ban on plastic bags in San Francisco and talk about placing an increased cost on plastic bags.

According the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, there is not really an environmental difference between the two. In fact, there are a couple of key points worth mentioning. It takes more than four times as much energy to manufacture a paper bag as it does to manufacture a plastic bag. Paper bags are biodegradable but not when placed into a landfill. Nothing biodegrades in a landfill. Less than 1 percent of all plastic bags are recycled and consequently we see new bags showing up with every breeze blowing in. Probably most concerning about the bags is that Marine scientists have estimated that up to 1 million sea creatures die annually from plastic bag suffocation.

"The success of the plastic bag has meant a dramatic increase in the amount of sacks found floating in the oceans where they choke, strangle, and starve wildlife and raft alien species around the world," according to David Barnes, a marine scientist with the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge, England, who studies the impact of marine debris.

All of this is leading the "Green" movement to encourage us to have reusable, cloth bags. But what intrigues me more than anything about this paper vs. plastic battle is why people make the decisions they make. Obviously, I spend more than my fare share of nights in a hotel and hotels seem to be on the forefront of attempting to guilt us into resource conservation. This study was released just last week and I believe it tells us a lot.

"One spur to get people to act is to honestly tell them that's what the majority of people are doing in this situation," said Robert Cialdini, a psychologist at Arizona State University, author of the new study. He found more support for this cattle-herd theory in a study of bath towel reuse in upscale hotel rooms in the Phoenix, Arizona, area. The folowing messages were studied as to how successful they were in urging guests to reuse towels.

--"Help Save The Environment," with information stressing respect for nature.

--"Help Save Resources For Future Generations," with information stressing the importance of energy-saving.

--"Partner With Us To Help Save The Environment," with information urging guests to help the hotel preserve the environment.

--"Join Your Fellow Citizens In Helping To Save The Environment," stating the majority of hotel guests reuse their towels.

Compared with the first three messages, the final one asking guests to join others increased towel reuse by about 28 percent.

In a society where the essentials of life come so easy and are mostly taken for granted, I believe this particular study sheds a tremendous amount of light on what it will really take to change the habits of consumers. In America alone we use 2.5 million plastic bottles an hour. I would think we would all be best served to do a better job recycling so we don't learn what a true bottleneck is.

Editor's note: Trent Loos is a sixth generation United States farmer, host of the daily radio show, Loos Tales, and founder of Faces of Agriculture, a non-profit organization putting the human element back into the production of food. Get more information at www.FacesOfAg.com, or e-mail Trent at trent@loostales.com.

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3/12/07

1 Star WK

Date: 3/8/07

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