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Paper or plastic? It's complicated...

The question shoppers have to answer nearly every trip to the store is more layered than you'd think.

GOLDEN VALLEY, Minn. — Paper or plastic?

It's a question that has haunted shoppers nearly as long as that Shakespearian inquiry "To be or not to be?" (OK, not really). 

So what's an environmentally-conscious shopper to do? Welllllll... it's actually a bit complicated.

Here are a few facts to figure in, according to the New York times.

  • Americans use more than 100 billion polyethylene plastic bags every year.
  • Only a small portion are ever recycled because they clog up the machinery at most recycling centers.
  • They end up in a 'landfill'-- where they can take 'centuries' to decompose.

A plastic bag doesn't do too much harm sitting in a landfill. It's when they escape that the trouble starts. When people don't dispose of their bags the right way they end up threatening wildlife and clogging our waterways.

So just ask for paper, right?

Guess what... there are problems there too.Paper bags degrade more easily and they're a renewable resource, but it actually takes more energy to make that paper bag from pulp than it does to make a plastic bag-- from oil.

So maybe a reusable bag is the way to go... but that's only if you actually 'reuse' it... a LOT. Britain's Environment Agency found you'd have to use those cotton bags or more durable plastic ones 131 times-- yep, 131-- before that bag's global warming impact was less than that of a plastic bag-- used only once.

If all of this leaves your head spinning, hang on to this final thought: Experts say one-third of the food we produce in the world is wasted, and when that food waste ends up in landfills it produces a large amount of methane... a more powerful greenhouse gas than even carbon dioxide. That's not even taking into consideration all the wasted resources that went into growing and producing that food.

Bottom line is this: If we REALLY want to be environmentally friendly, we may need to think harder about what we're putting inside those bags, and only buy and prepare what we're going to use.

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