My View of Life on the Dock
GloucesterCast 1/31/14 With Host Joey Ciaramitaro and Guest Ed Collard -The Paper vs Plastic Podcast
Topics Include: Ed Collard Passes The Torch to Mike Luster as New Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors President, O’Maley Innovation School LipDub Video, Administrators Deserve Kudos, James Niedzinski’s Gloucester Daily Times Article and Thank Goodness for Local Newspapers, The Great Paper vs Plastic Debate.
Subscribe to The GloucesterCast Podcast by Email
Bob Velo from Crosbys Market stated in the Gloucester Daily Times article that the cost for plastic bags are 3 cents vs 10 cents for paper bags.
The District’s four-year-old tax on disposable bags has been a rousing success, leading to a 60 percent drop in household bag use and many fewer plastic bags littering city streets. Such are the claims of city environmental officials, citing surveys done by an independent research firm last year.
City revenue figures, meanwhile, show no continuing decrease in the use of disposable bags. In fact, bag tax collections have proven remarkably stable since the nickel-per-bag fee debuted in January 2010.
Information from International Plastics website (for what it’s worth):
Are plastic bags getting a bad reputation?
Look in almost any newspaper and more than likely you will find an article about local government that is considering to somehow regulate plastic bags. It is becoming easy to hate the “pitiful” plastic bag!
Paper vs. Plastic:
Articles usually leave out the facts as well as the side by side comparison. A truthful look at what is required to produce 1000 plastic bags versus 1000 similar paper bags. If the biased media would present the facts, as discerning people we could make educated and wise decisions.
If all the shoppers using plastic bags last year had used paper bags instead, they would have increased the amount of solid waste by over 100 million tons and taken up 7 times more space in landfills.
Lindle Willnow submits a great link with more facts from the National Cooperative Grocers Association-
Here is a reference that shows that neither option is that good but plastic seems to have a smaller, though longer lasting impact (https://www.ncga.coop/newsroom/paper-or-plastic). That said, I haven’t got on board with bringing my own.
Joey notes-
The 979 cubic inches for 1000 plastic bags vs 7188 cubic inches for paper bags does not take into account that after a year or two in a landfill that paper bag will be significantly less from decomposing and the plastic bag will be around forever.
January 29, 2014
By James NiedzinskiStaff Writer
MANCHESTER — The use of the plastic shopping bag was formally wrapped up when the town’s ban went into effect at the start of the month, and now, weeks later, some say the difference is as thin as the film the bags are made of.
Meanwhile, the Marblehead Board of Health voted last week to bring a similar ban to Marblehead Town Meeting in May. The board cited waste reduction efforts and impacts on the environment as a reason for proposing the ban.
The management of Crosby’s Marketplace is opposing the bid for a bag ban in Marblehead, as it did when Manchester’s ban went before voters, saying the company has made efforts to reduce the use of both paper and plastic bags.
Such a ban only increases the use of paper bags, which also impact the environment, considering the loss of trees and the amount of water used to produce them, said Bob Vello, general manager of the chain which has stores in both towns. Paper bags are more expensive at 10 cents each, he said. Plastic ones are 3 cents.
To read the entire article at The Gloucester Daily Times Website click here
Kudos to James Niedzinski for including the cost difference in the article. Too often people make environmental decisions without taking into economic factors at all. I’m not saying that i favor or not favor the decision by the Selectmen and voters in Manchester, I’m just happy that at least some concrete numbers were thrown into the discussion.
I’d love to know the difference in cost between Styrofoam cups and paper cups because I see way more Styrofoam cups blowing around and trapped under brush for years and years compared to plastic bags. I’ll give my opinion tomorrow.
Good Morning Gloucester 