It is a common question that has been neglected over the years.
When you check out at your grocery store, your cashier is supposed to ask you, "paper bags or plastic?" Then you are supposed to respond with your choice of bag.
More recently companies have neglected to pay attention to paper sacks versus plastic either for economical reasons or simply because it is easier to assume that you want to carryout bags with handles.
Now, you have to specify if you would like to have paper bags.
Grocery stores have neglected to realize that paper bags are much easier to recycle which ultimately helps the environment and would reduce the use of plastic bags that take longer to recycle either way.
Paper bags are a lot like other paper products like newspapers that are broken down and recycled every day.
Paper is much more versatile and takes less man power to break down and create into products.
Plastic has to go through a melting process that takes more time to reduce into other plastic products.
There are several pros and cons to choosing the different types of carrying bags but you, as the consumer, must decide which your favorite to use is.
There is another form of recycling that most Americans take advantage of after they leave the grocery store.
Rather than give the recyclable bags to someone, they use them for other purposes.
For example plastic bags can be used for picking up after animals, carrying wet clothing, a temporary lunch box, carrying shoes or anything for that matter, or anything else that you can think of.
Some stores even ask you to bring all of your bags back for their very own recycling program.
Paper carrying bags can be used for many things.
They can be used for drawing on, book covers, or even as temporary trash bags for waste or for foods in the kitchen that can go towards compost.
Not everyone is interested in doing their part to recycle in their community but you can make a big difference just by involving yourself in recycling activities.
Recycling is a great thing to involve your kids in as well.
They can learn the values of reusing things at a young age and learning that recycling helps the planet.
It is hard to teach kids at a young age, but even most adults do not know that our planet needs help and that if we continue to destroy our resources, Earth will not last forever.
Recycling is very important and through our homes, schools, and grocery stores, we can all make a big difference and change the way we think about things before we reuse them or throw them away.
Our landfills are getting full and our pockets are getting tighter.
It is time to learn to reduce, reuse, and recycle to make our world a much better place to live.
By learning from a young age and continuing what has been learned we can all make a huge difference.