The argument continues over what is better to use, plastic or paper bags. Purists will insist that the answer is neither. According to them, we should carry reusable bags. After watching a young bagger struggle to balance the bag while filling it and then have it fall over when placed into the cart, I believe it is likely to spread the contents of the bag in the trunk even more, leaving the hapless consumer having to repack them in order to move the merchandise from the car to the home. A definite disadvantage in the winter in my part of the country.

Paper supporters claim they are saving the environment. Indeed, I saw one paper bag on the Internet that had a commentary printed on it claiming that this bag is made of recycled paper and NO trees were destroyed to make the bag. I guess they just forgot about the original trees that gave up its fibrous content to make an original paper product. It must have sounded like a good idea at the time. Plastic supporters also have a number or reasons that paper is not so good for the environment. First, it requires power and water to manufacture the paper bags. Paper is magnitudes heavier than plastic and therefore requires more energy to deliver paper products than the same number of plastic bags. Paper is more expensive. Paper claims that plastic takes 300 years to break down. Plastic claims that paper breaks down, but emits methane gas while it does. Seems to me paper could also evolve CO₂ gas. However, these should be moot points since both are recyclable.

To me, it doesn’t really matter. The exception would be when I need a quick costume for one of the grandkids. I would never use a plastic bag as a mask but paper gives me a lot of possibilities.

Here is what really gets my craw though. Again, it is the politicians that decide they need to tell me how to live my life. Some places have outright banned plastic bag use. Other cities are looking at adding a per bag extra charge. A consumer group is currently battling against Seattle's proposal to charge and extra $0.20 per bag. The city does not want anybody to use paper or plastic and the city fathers believe they know better than their constituents. Other cities are carefully watching the outcome of this fight. If the city wins, you can believe others will leap to quickly increase your tax by calling it a per bag fee.