Whole Foods: plastic be gone
I just read that Whole Foods is eliminating plastic shopping bags by Earth Day 2008. A great move! We’ve covered this problematic issue for years (most recently in Nov 2007’s issue, here). I’m delighted to see a chain as large and influential as Whole Foods taking a leadership stance.
Related Topics: Green Living, From the Editors
January 31st, 2008 at 3:04 am
the debate over paper and plastic bags is perplexing. on one hand, you have the decimation of forests to make a paper bag and, on the flip side, plastic carriers that won’t break down. i dislike both products so i think both bags should be eliminated and a recycled biodegradable solution should be implemented. is this going to be the case?
February 1st, 2008 at 5:16 pm
I don’t know what post-plastic Whole Foods bagging options will look like, but we advocate purchasing your own reusable bags. Check out our article “Break the Throwaway Habit” for more on the issue >> http://deliciouslivingmag.com/mag/dl_article_2444/index.html
February 13th, 2008 at 2:09 am
This is a positive move by Whole Foods on a few counts:
1. environmental benefit
2. immediate positive PR to both customers and non-customers
3. opportunity to promote their reusable bags, which they make very easy and available to purchase.
Whole Foods has been fantastic to date. I applaud this move!
February 13th, 2008 at 10:50 am
I agree, it’s a great move by a very visible entity. At the same time, we need to be conscious of the first tenet of a low-impact lifestyle: REDUCE, then reuse, then recycle. That means use less stuff overall, because packaging of all types contributes fully half of all landfill waste. (There’s a good book on the subject called, appropriately, Paper or Plastic, which I just read about on TuttiFoodie.com.) With bags, the first step is to decide whether you need a bag at all; if not, just carry your stuff by hand.