The Dirt
September/October 2008

Paper Vs. Plastic

You know to bring your reusable canvas bags to the grocery store, but, hey, sometimes you forget. So how do you answer that fateful question “Paper or plastic?”

Paper
Pros: When well packed, a paper grocery bag can hold almost four times the amount of stuff as a plastic bag. Paper bags biodegrade easily and can be composted.
Cons: We cut down 14 million trees each year to make the paper bags that Americans use. The process of making paper bags creates 70 percent more pollution than the process of making plastic. Though paper can be recycled, the process is long and complicated and results in a significant amount of greenhouse gas emissions.

Plastic
Pros: Plastic bags can be easily recycled by a simple melting-and-reforming process, and it takes 91 percent less energy to recycle a plastic bag than a paper one. At least 50 percent of plastic manufacturing uses electricity generated by nuclear fission, which
some say has less effect on the environment.
Cons: More than 100,000 birds and marine animals die each year from plastic bags
that are not disposed of properly. It takes 12 million barrels of crude oil to make plastic bags each year, and plastic can sit in landfills for up to 1,000 years.

You be the judge.

Tap Water: A Clear Winner

Americans spend more than $15 billion each year on their hydration habits when they could be spending mere pennies per gallon and reducing consumption of crude oil by more than 50 million barrels annually. The solution: tap water. Municipal water supplies are tested multiple times daily, and the United States already spends $43 billion a year to supply citizens with clean water. Why pay twice? Get yourself a filter for taste and a reusable bottle for convenience and hydrate away!

Your Very Own Backyard Wildlife Habitat

Have you ever stopped to think about what lived in your yard before you took it over? While we don’t necessarily want to invite everything back onto our property, there are small changes we can make to create homes for the little creatures native to our areas. The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) has a program called Certified Wildlife Habitat that offers easy-to-follow guidelines on how to create a more wildlife-friendly backyard, (i.e., providing a water source for birds and shelter for animals in the form of bushes and brush). Not only does this make a fun project for kids but it’s a unique opportunity to teach them powerful lessons about protecting animal habitats. The $15 fee gives you an NWF membership, a subscription to National Wildlife, and your name on the NWF’s registry of certified habitats. For an extra $25, you get a certification sign to stake in your yard—maybe your neighbors will want to keep up with the Joneses, and you’ll really be on to something. Get certified today: www.nwf.org/backyard

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