As I was reading Yahoo News yesterday, I came across an item where you can post a question for Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana. Senator Lugar is fairly outspoken about energy issues; in particular, he is a big advocate for ethanol. I decided to post a question about mercury pollution from coal-fired power plants and also asked him whether alternative energy, in his opinion, will eliminate the need for new coal-fired power plants. We'll see if he responds to these questions. As I was reviewing what other people wrote (and some questions were really off the wall), I noticed that there were several regarding oil dependence. One writer noted that plastic bags are made from petroleum and given the proliferation of plastic bags in this country, why don't we use paper--since we can grow the trees ourselves to make them and we can recycle the paper fairly easily?

This question regarding the plastic bags got me to thinking about how changing one aspect of our lives could really decrease the demand for foreign oil in a huge way. I can see a downside to using all paper bags--e.g. using tons of lumber just to make bags and thereby, placing even more burden on forests. However, I do think this person is on to something. If we limit our production and use of plastic bags, maybe people will use fewer bags at the store, since paper bags seem to hold more. It always seems like when I go to the grocery store, the person bagging, puts about two items in one plastic bag. It just seems so wasteful. I'm not sure what's cheaper for the stores--paper or plastic--but perhaps more stores would eliminate the bagging process altogether, such that the consumers would have to bring their own bags. Sam's Club does not bag things, and people have no problem purchasing tons of items there. Convenience would be eliminated in some cases, but if it leads to a huge reduction in oil use to make plastic bags, then so be it.

Further, in terms of the pollution effect, I read somewhere that one plastic bag takes 20 years to decompose. Even if someone litters with a paper bag, it seems a bit more earth-friendly--although the flip side is that paper does not seem to decompose all that well when buried in a landfill. The better option seems again to be that if we simply use fewer bags altogether, there will be less waste to dispose of in landfills.

Perhaps another alternative to the paper or plastic debate would be to make more items from corn plastic. I think certain companies like Newman's Own, already use corn plastic for some items like salad dressing containers. I don't know much about how it is made or how it degrades (or how easily it can be recycled). However, it seems like at least an option for continuing to use a plastic product that uses something other than petroleum.

Until plastic bags are done away with (if that ever happens), I will continue to bring them back to the grocery store, where there is a place to return them so they can be recycled. Maybe this can also reduce our dependence on foreign oil, as we can keep using the bags over and over.