Biodegradable plastic bags

Biodegradable plastic bags are not as green as they are made out to be: they cost a lot of energy to produce, do not break down in landfills and may leave chemical residues. Their promotion is a greenwash.
The best approach to shopping is to be prepared: precycling.

Precycling

Precyclers are people who come prepared for shopping and seek out shops where they can buy only what they need, without all that extra packaging which they have to pay for and then dispose of. Most packaging which we throw away each week comes from food, so precyclers have to be most prepared when they go shopping for food (in the UK, 4.7m tonnes out of 5.9m tonnes of packaging waste is food related). Most shops don’t give you the option, you just have to buy the packaging as well as what you want to buy, so precyclers collect information about which shops meet their needs.
The precycling movement began in Berkley, California in 1988. It is just that much better than recycling. Also known as “wombles”, precyclers refuse junk mail, carry precycling kits including sandwich bags and cutlery, and read on the internet, refusing paper pulp news sources.
Buying unpackaged is initially inconvenient, until you know all the different suppliers. A shop in North London called Unpackaged even gives a discount if you bring your own container.
People practise precycling for ecological and economic reasons. Those who prefer to eat organic food already pay a premium, so paying for extra packaging as well makes no sense. In times of economic difficulties, where the budget has to be rationalised, it is preferable to precycle organic food instead of buying dearer packaged organics, rather than substituting cheaper packaged non-organic food from a supermarket and throwing your money away.

Which recyclable bags?

Many US shopping chains are now promoting reusable shopping bags and no longer give away free throw-away bags. In some cities, such as San Francisco, the singlet bags are banned in supermarkets and chain stores. It is however proving to be difficult to determine what really is an environmentally responsible bag. Here are some of the concerns:

• Often bags are made in China and shipped thousands of kilometers using unique fossil fuels while polluting the oceans and shores with the exhaust from dirty marine fuel just to get them to the place where they are to be reused
• Often bags are made of plastic which takes a long time to decompose. They can't be washed.
  
• If bags are not reused they are more environmentally damaging than disposable thin bags because they are made with more solid materials.
• Many cheap recyclable bags are made in Chinese factories from polypropylene, using 28 times as much energy as a disposable bag
• Cotton bags can require a large amount of water and energy to produce and may use harsh chemical dyes. However they can be washed and reused for a long time like clothing.
  
• Paper bags destroy trees and the factories pollute water and air. They can be reused many times but usually aren't.
  

The biggest problem is to get people to use reusable bags even after they buy them. But at the same time disposable plastic bags are becoming unpopular. 100 billion plastic bags are thrown away each year in the US.
Producers of reusable bags have reported big increases in sales.

Petrol or packaging?

It has been reported lately that increasing petrol prices and mortgages are straining the budget. Some people are downgrading their diet rather than riding a bicycle, and buying “edible food-like substances” from the supermarket instead of pure organic whole foods.
Unlike other organic food shops, the coop has unpackaged goods at a lower price, so why pay for the attractive packaging? Also the coop is a non-profit organisation and this flows into the lower cost of goods.
Bring your own beautiful, clean containers.
On the topic of “edible food-like substances”, this video of Michael Pollan informs about good food, nutrition and culture.

Packaging not popular among shoppers

A worldwide survey taken in November 2007 by the Nielsen Company indicates that concern about packaging waste has grown more than any other environmental concern. Forty percent of respondents were "very concerned" about rubbish from food packaging.
Major food retailers are now acting to cut back on packaging in response to customer concerns.
Half of the people in the survey were willing to cut back on packaging if it was not important in keeping food clean.
Overall cunsumers are shifting to paper, cardboard and glass because they can be recycled.
New Zealanders were the most willing to give up packaging, but people from Japan and Thailand were the least willing to reduce it.
Unlike most other organic wholefood shops, the Food Coop has waste minimisation as a primary focus.

Packaging art

For some interesting art based on packaging and its statistics see the work of Chris Jordan.

Recyclable plastic bags in the oceans

The majority of the rubbish that ends up in the oceans comes from the land, not from ships. Only a small amount of plastic waste ends up in landfills. Huge areas of the ocean surface are now covered in plastic garbage with disastrous consequences for sea animals, fish and birds as well as water quality. One of the main components of this waste is plastic bags. Others are fishing tackle, balloons, six-packs, smoking accessories and packaging of all sorts.
Recyclable plastic bags are used in many shops, including many in Manly which claim to make a contribution to the environment by using them. Many of these bags claim to biodegrade quickly, to break down or even to be compostable. However when they reach the sea, they do not break down at all in salt water and are just like other plastic garbage.
They do not compost in the ocean or on the beach. Researchers tied these plastic bags to moorings in a harbour. "A year later you could still carry groceries in them." (p 117 Weisman)
Reusing containers is preferable to any kind of throw-away plastic containers.
Image from dotAtelier.

Reduce packaging

This video on the effects of plastic packaging on our oceans reinforces the efforts of the coop to reduce waste and bring your own containers.