The Nickel-Bag Offense

In 2005 Wal-Mart began switching from petroleum-based to biodegradable corn-based plastic packaging. The plastic comes from NatureWorks, a division of Cargill Dow—whose parent company, Cargill, has come under fire for its distribution of genetically engineered corn. The giant retail chain also claims to have diverted “1,100 tons of plastic from landfills” on its Web site. (Wal-Mart representatives declined requests for an interview).

Meanwhile, local governments are trying to influence shoppers’ behavior. San Francisco’s Commission on the Environment attempted to mandate a 17-cent surcharge on each plastic and paper bag a shopper takes home in 2005, but Mayor Gavin Newsom ultimately rejected the plan. Now the city is considering an ordinance that plastic bags used in the 60 main chain stores in San Francisco be compostable, made from corn or potato starch, according to the commission’s Jared Blumenthal. “It’s likely that will pass, and of the city’s 181 million plastic bags, that will probably add up to 150 million.”

On a smaller scale, Brooklyn’s $27.5 million Park Slope Food Co-op has been discouraging its 12,800 members from using plastic bags for two decades and asks that they volunteer a few coins in return for their use, according to the co-op’s Joe Holtz. “We say, ‘We want you to pay for them, but we’re going to leave it up to the honor system’,” he says. When people join the market, they are given a cotton mesh bag, which the co-op also sells, along with reusable 54-cent plastic sacks like IKEA’s Big Blue Bag. “They’re plastic but much better for the environment if people use them every week," says Holtz. "You use a lot less plastic overall if you use them 200 times. I’ve been using some of mine four or five years." When was the last time you could say that about the bag you brought your groceries home in?

© 2007