Paper or........

It was bound to happen eventually, but Kudos to Whole Foods for being a leader on this one.  Today Whole Foods announced that they will be eliminating the use of plastic bags in all of their 270 stores.  The company has committed to reaching this goal by April 22, which I might add is Earth Day for all of you keeping score at home.  It's been interesting to watch consumer perceptions change in recent years.  I'm only 22 years old, but I can positively remember an older time when this move would have been called a mistake by analysts and the general public would have been laughing.  Other domestic retailers will surely follow this trend as many retailers in Australia and China have also made commitments to stop using plastic.  Because of concerns over environmental impact, governments will without a doubt continue to crack down and eliminate plastics when it's feasible.  For this reason, Whole Foods efforts will continue to yield the organization competitive advantages in the retail sector.  Ingrained in Whole Foods core values has been caring  for the environment and localized community.  The company has said they will continue to offer 100%  recycled paper grocery bags.  However, I have to believe the company is hoping shoppers will bring their own reusable bags.  One thing is for sure, while these are only small steps towards a more eco-friendly society, we will continue to see major cultural attitude shifts when it comes to the environment and how we interact and co-exist with the planet at large.

Comments

[Fred]

you got any info. on the estimated negative environmental impact by waste from plastic grocery bags? didn't we move to plastic in an attempt to distance ourselves from the negative impact of using wood for paper sacks? how will the public respond to that, despite the fact that they are using 100% recycled paper?
i'd like to know if my choice of grocery bag is making an impact in the bigger picture....and maybe we should all be purchasing the reusable sacks from www.greendimes.org!

[Zach]

That's a good point Fred. As of right now it seems there isn't a true consensus on whether paper or plastic is more eco-friendly. I found a bunch of different stuff after a google search. A lot of the facts point toward plastic bags being more eco-friendly and that seems to be what fueled the switch towards plastic. Another issue is that recycling paper has become more popular than recycling plastic, thus it's less likely that a paper bag will end up in a land fill as opposed to a plastic one.

But at the end of the day, it's somewhat relative because one's preference over paper or plastic comes down to how much valuation they end up placing on tree's and the overall environment at large. Economists will likely debate over what the environment is worth till the end of time. One thing is for sure though, if everyone used reusable sacks, this would be the most eco-friendly option.

For Whole Foods and the rest of the industry at large, the real question remains: what grocer or retailer will take the leap to not offer paper or plastic at all and only sell reusable sacks? I don't think we're there yet but we sure are getting close. I'd look for some chain to make this happen within the next 10 years. It would be a novelty move for certain, a move that a certain demographic would likely embrace.

[Fred]

Haggen offers two sizes of reusable grocery sacks (they of course are a stunning shade of....you guessed it, Green), one for 99 cents and the other for $1.99. Obviously this is not an expense for retailer or consumer to offer these sacks, but I see this trend taking a Long, Long Time to sink in until disposable grocery sacks are unavailable to the customer. If you think about it, even the reusable ones are disposable, if you simply throw them in the garbage can. Will someone produce biodegradable garbage sacks? Biodegradable and reusable garbage sacks? Semantics for days if you really go at it.
I just doubt our lifetime will see every grocery customer carrying reusable garbage sacks. What if you forget your sack? Do you have to buy another one? Do you get a credit each time you use it? How long will it take for Every single citizen to give a shit about reusable garbage sacks? Decades, I'm thinking. I also wonder how much the logging and paper manufacturing industry relies on retail paper garbage sacks as a component of their business. Will this private interest interfere with political and legislative promotion of "more eco-friendly" garbage sack alternatives? And how much more eco-friendly are they, if the factories that once manufactured trees is merely switching to nylon and other plastic compounds? What is the trade-off of long-term environmentally destructive potential?

All this over lousy garbage sacks?