Paper or Plastic? How About Neither!
Published 01.12.2009
News
Millions of plastic and paper bags are used then thrown away at local grocery stores. Instead of using plastic or paper, Penn College's Horticulture Club suggests a handy, reusable shopping bag. In the United States alone, 30 billion plastic bags and 10 billion paper bags are used each year, requiring approximately 14 million trees and 12 million barrels of oil just to produce bags that might be thrown away almost immediately. Using a reusable grocery bag is the latest "Green Tip of the Week," a cooperative venture of The Energy Conservation Subcommittee of Penn College's Governance system and the School of Natural Resources Management's Horticulture Department. (Contacts for the feature are Gail B. Landers, group leader at the Children's Learning Center and a subcommittee member, and Carl J. Bower Jr., horticulture instructor.)