Paper vs. Plastic: Choose Neither

Although it’s possible to recycle disposable grocery bags, it’s still a major drain on our environmental resources, and isn’t really worth the trouble. A reusable bag will last forever, and is 95% less likely than a disposable bag to bust open just because you tried to bring home 2 bottles of wine. Still need convincing? Read on to discover why your answer to “paper or plastic?” should be “neither.”

• More than 1 million plastic bags are discarded per minute
• Plastic bags contaminate food and water
• When an animal ingests a plastic bag, these toxic chemicals also enter our own food chain. Yummy!
• Retailers spend approximately $4 billion annually on providing disposable bags– money that could instead go toward improving employee wages, or spiffing up that awful public bathroom
• Plastic bags are so invasive and so darn indestructible, they’ve even become a major litter issue in Antarctica
• Plastic bags are the number one source of ocean pollution
• The manufacturing of paper bags wastes tons of water, too, rendering it completely unsuitable for human or animal use
• The sediment from paper bags causes toxicity in fish and other marine wildlife– and, as you probably know, plastic bags have a horrible reputation for strangling and suffocating all kinds of critters the world over
• A single reusable bag has the capability to replace 1,000 disposable grocery bags in its lifetime

If you carry a purse and are only purchasing one or two small items, consider putting your items in there instead of getting a disposable bag. To make sure you’ll actually remember the reusable bags you put so much earth-friendly effort into retrieving, keep them stashed in your car, or even in an office drawer. If you need something hardier than a bag for your shopping spree, try using a plastic crate!

Stop by The Greener Good to check out the reusable bags we have in store. Our extended holiday hours have begun, meaning that we’re open until 6 PM Tuesday through Saturday!

Paper vs. Plastic: Recycling

Yesterday’s blog focused on the manufacturing processes behind paper and plastic grocery bags. The volume of resources that both kinds of bag require seems pretty outrageous– especially when it comes to paper. Although recycling may seem like a great way to get more bang out of a disposable bag’s materials, it’s not exactly a simple or cheap endeavor.

When paper bags are recycled, they must be returned to their pulp state. This is achieved by breaking down the paper with hydrogen peroxide, sodium hydroxide, sodium silicate, and other freaky-sounding tongue-twisters. After the bags have dissolved into pulp again, the fibers are bleached and re-dispersed, then cleaned and run through a screen to remove contaminants. Because most bags are printed with ink, the pulp also has to be washed with clean water.

The rest of the ink-removal process is tedious and difficult. When dunked in boiling water, ink particles float to the top of the vat in the form of bubbles, which must quickly be removed before they pop and float down into the pulp again. Waste from the recycling process that is not suitable for paper products is cleaned and sorted for other purposes, such as making fertilizer or bricks.

Over half of all plastic bags go straight to municipal landfills, where they make up a whopping 18% of the landfill’s waste. However, plastic is much easier to recycle than paper, as it only needs to be melted and re-molded. Cleaning isn’t necessary, because the temperatures used to melt the bags also sterilize them. Plastic can be recycled and repurposed many times over without a significant loss of quality, and even brittle plastic that’s a little past it’s time can be used in products like ashtrays. Studies have also found that it takes 91% less energy to recycle a pound of plastic than it takes to recycle a pound of paper.

Unfortunately, only 5% of plastic bags are recycled. Paper bags are recycled at a similarly dismal rate of about 10-15%. Because recycling grocery bags requires so much energy and so many resources, many wonder if it’s even worth it. What’s the green alternative to paper or plastic, then? Check out tomorrow night’s blog to find out!

Made in the USA: Fire & Light and Preserve

We’ve given you the low-down on the badness of factory outsourcing, and showed off some of the American-made children’s items we have to offer in our store, but now it’s time to haul out the big (green) guns! Keep reading to learn more about some of our featured products that are 100% made in the USA.

Fire & Light creates gorgeous, eye-catching dinnerware from recycled glass. The company was started as a partnership between a Californian recycling center and a group of local investors who wanted to put crushed post-consumer glass to good use, and continues to be an operation run entirely out of the USA. Everything is sourced and created domestically, from the scrap glass, to the pigments, to the artisans working to melt the glass in furnaces and reshape it into bowls and plates. In fact, Fire & Light is so keen on incorporating recycling into every aspect of their production process, they even use recycled beer kegs as vats to cool their glass-pouring ladles!

If your home is the sort of place where glass simply wouldn’t be reasonable (we’re looking at you, owners of large dogs and clumsy-yet-inquisitive children), check out our line of products by Preserve! Their dinnerware and mixing bowls are made from recycled plastic, with recycled post-consumer paper for packaging, and are produced entirely in America. Preserve products are also BPA and melamine free, as well as being extremely sturdy, so they’re perfect for taking on the go– or just feeding your rambunctious brood!

At The Greener Good, we’re proud of the American-made products we sell, and believe they’re made with the highest degree of quality and craftsmanship! If you’re a fan of domestic production, job creation, and the obliteration of the rising trade deficit (and, to be honest, we’re kind of judging you if you aren’t), please consider supporting a company that sources and manufactures their goods in the USA! For more American-made products and helpful anecdotes, come see us in-store at 925 Foch Street, Fort Worth, TX. Here at The Greener Good, it’s all good!