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Letter to the editor

Plastic bags losing grocers' favor

Most shoppers prefer them, but environmental concerns have led to more limits and bans.

WASHINGTON - The inevitable question faced by shoppers at grocery checkouts, how to tote their food home, soon may get simpler.

Faced with a growing push in some states and cities to ban or limit use of plastic bags, many grocers are encouraging consumers to recycle bags or bring their own.

At least one, Whole Foods Market Inc., plans to do away with the bags altogether. The largest U.S. natural-foods grocer will stop giving out disposable plastic bags at its checkout counters as more governments around the world prohibit their use. All of the retailer's 270 U.S., Canadian and U.K. outlets will begin running down inventories of the bags right away, aiming to be free of disposable plastic bags by Earth Day on April 22.

But many grocers report that about 90 percent of their shoppers still ask for plastic. And the bagmakers, a billion-dollar industry, oppose bans, calling instead for consumers to reuse or recycle the bags. They favor recent legislation that encourages the recycling of bags.

Plastic bags have a split personality: They draw shoppers with their durability and light weight, but environmentalists consider them a scourge, tangled in trees or swirling in waterways where they can be scarfed up by unsuspecting aquatic creatures.

Some states and municipalities have tried to curb the use of the bags or keep them from becoming litter. Last year, San Francisco passed the nation's first bag ban. The only plastic bags now allowed for big grocers are made of compostable material.

The United States lags behind many other countries globally in placing limits on plastic bags. Ireland and Germany levy fees for every bag handed out by stores.

Used widely since the 1970s, the bags are virtually indestructible, taking years to break down and commonly ending up in landfills.

[Last modified January 23, 2008, 00:50:31]