Paper or Plastic? A False Dichotomy
Finding alternatives to typical carrier bags
“Regular or plant milk?” may be the environmentally conscious question that is all the rage nowadays, but it used to be, “paper or plastic?”
To the delight of the American Chemical Society, the winning choice, in the form of now trillions of bags used per year, was plastic. And (maybe) rightly so. A 2012 UK Environmental Agency study found that a paper bag would need to be used three times before equaling the global warming potential (GWP) of a plastic bag used once. Granted, GWPs aren’t the only environmental effects to consider, but despite all the negativity surrounding plastic bags, they at least might be a better option than paper.
With the arrival of reusable bags, though, our item-carrying sins were absolved.
Touted as the superior tote, reusable bags, often made of plastic, became the go-to symbol for shopping sustainably. The idea behind the often polypropylene-derived products wasn’t new, though: burlap bags made of the jute plant in India have been around for several centuries, and we’ve undoubtedly been using other carrier apparatuses since humans first settled.
What gets me, though, is how much using bags has become a constant in our culture. To explore this further, we will head to the pharmacy and hear about behavior that drives me crazy.
Mindless bagging
If you’ve ever picked up a prescription before, then you probably know that, for privacy reasons, medication bottles are often placed in a plastic or paper bag to hide what is inside. Which is cool, I get the reasoning for that. However, I often see cashiers then place these bags in separate single-use plastic bags to hand to the customer. Now, sometimes you get people picking up four or more meds at once, so this makes sense. But for the majority of customers, this double bagging is senseless. If a customer asked, I would give it to them, but I can confidently say that during my time handing out prescriptions, at least 75% of people never asked for double bagging.
So why did my colleagues feel this was necessary? I suspect societal norms are at play here. They probably didn’t want to deal with a customer saying, “Can you please put that in a bag for me?”
On the customer side of the equation, they may feel pressured to take a bag because they don’t want to be seen as “stealing” when they walk out the front door. Again, the norm here is that if an item is not bagged, then it is somehow stolen. Mind you, I have twice now unintentionally almost walked out of a store without paying after bagging my items at self-checkout.
As customers, the best thing we can do is normalize carrying out items with our hands if no bag is necessary. “I appreciate the help, but I won’t need those items bagged,” is a quick and easy way to let your cashier know. And if you’re a cashier, I would say start seeing what you can get away with. Most people don’t want the bag anyways.
Collectively, however, what can we do to address this issue?
Ban or tax?
If you’ve read this far, you’re likely someone already interested in lowering their environmental footprint. But what do we do about everyone who’s not?
The most logical solution would be banning single-use bags, which Chicago did in 2015. Old habits die hard, though, and stores, in an attempt to maintain “customer loyalty,” opted instead to use thicker plastic bags that weren’t affected by the ban because they were considered “reusable.” In a hallmark case of “unintended consequences,” banning single-use plastic led to “reusable” but notably thicker plastic being used as single-use instead. This isn’t to say that public policy fails to create desired effects. Instead, it’s a notable example that policy should be proportioned to the evidence.
The evidence, in this case, comes from a 2018 study of the impact of Chicago’s policy revision to their single-use ban, which instead placed a tax on disposable bags. The study looked at the effects of a seven-cent bag tax on about 25,000 Chicago grocery store shoppers from November 2016 to March 2018, with the tax taking effect in February 2017. The study found a significant decrease in single-use items and a corresponding increase in reusable bags and customers opting for none.
While Chicago may not be generalizable to all of the US or even the world, there was a noteworthy characteristic of the study that seems promising. This study took place during a change in the city’s policy from an outright ban on disposable bags to then a tax on them. Even among a likely more environmentally conscious population like Chicago urbanites, there was still a noticeable decrease in disposable bag use after the city made the switch. This says that, even in less environmentally conscious areas of the country, a tax on disposable bags will be noticed, which could help reduce single-use bags.
Why is this the case, though? The mechanism supported by the study has to do with people’s behavior. Most of us see our favorite single-use plastic bags as “free.” However, this doesn’t account for the store paying for them and rolling over those costs into their products or the environmental impact of single-use bags. Taxes bring awareness to these issues or at least negate our perception of these items as free. Remember, it’s not the actions of the people deep into this essay that we’re trying to change. It’s those who probably recognize the harmful effects of plastic, but because they also have a hundred other things vying for their attention, have not yet fully committed to changing their habits. Once BYOBags become habitual, then this change just becomes the new way society operates.
So what’s the answer? Paper or plastic? The answer is both, and the answer is neither. The best carrier apparatus is the one you already have. If you’ve stockpiled a bunch of paper bags, then use those. But once those paper bags have given all they can, it will be time to move on to more sustainable options. At this point, the priority would be finding a bag, preferably used, that could be reused hundreds if not thousands of times. Go find some polypropylene reusable bags at a used goods store, or maybe invest in a new hemp tote that will be with you for life. And whenever you can, use your hands.
