[LadyShea]

Originally Posted by godfry n. glad

Plastic is long-term landfill filler. Paper is relatively quick to biodegrade. Sure, you can go ahead and claim that a plastic bag can be reused, but then so can a paper one. Then, you can claim that plastic sacks can be reused more times...and I'd agree. But, the nature of the user is that they tend to use it once and throw it away (at least in western nations like the US and SA); thus, plastic creates more, and more difficult to handle, waste.
Bottom line, when I remember, I request paper bags (we usually have that choice in these parts).

The argument I have heard against paper is that trees have to be cut down. I don't think those bags are made from recycled paper, although that would be the "greenest" choice.

My grocery store has a big bin at the front door where you can bring your plastic bags and they recycle them. I keep some because they are useful, and then I periodically gather the extras and put them in the bin when I go shopping.

Note: If handles on paper grocery sacks cuts into profit margins, why is it that the lower-margin stores are the ones that offer them? That seems to have been the case here, at least; the leading stores tried to shift customers to plastic, while the discount outlets (like Trader Joe's) ignored plastic and went for handles on the paper sacks.

I was being sarcastic. Handles are more expensive and big retailers cut every little corner they can because they are so money hungry. And yes, often smaller stores go for the niceties and better service to compete. It's a well known tactic in retail that if you can't compete with the big boys pricewise, you outservice and/or outquality them.

But, I don't think of Trader Joe's as a discount market, they seem to have harder to find gourmet type items, at least here so it's not as easy to directly price compare.

Oh... Yes, I know that the plastic used for plastic shopping bags can be recycled, but the recycle market for plastic film is far more volatile and unpredictable than the market for kraft paper (which is the "plain brown paper"), and when the market is down, they get dumped into the usual waste stream, where the plastic doesn't break down for several millenia after being buried in the landfill.

I agree, but why is it not breaking down really a problem? We certainly aren't running out of landfill space or anything.