There is nary a decision in life that is not a moral decision on some level, and no moral decision that is not black and white on some level. Facial hair, for instance. Culture shrivels where the manly cheek is bare!
As a graphic artist, I used to work with halftone sheets, which was just some nifty shading material made up of a pattern of very small dots (like in a newspaper... remember those?). I sometimes used those halftone sheets to demonstrate that what may appear gray to us from a distance will resolve itself into black and white if we will only take the trouble to look more closely.
Not that there aren't some damnably difficult moral questions, but it's all a matter of getting the right perspective. The difficulty of many moral questions doesn't lie in making the decision itself, but in dealing with the practical and emotional consequences of these decisions, which many people don't really want to do.
But I digress. This post really is about the ubiquitous "paper or plastic" controversy, and I will begin by saying that the question is more than a matter of taste.
If paper and plastic really are my only choices, reason demands I go with paper. Paper is made from wood pulp, which is a renewable resource. There are tons of fun things to do and make with paper bags. Paper is recyclable if you catch it up out of the trash. Even if you miss the trash and it ends up laying in a ditch, it is readily biodegradable. You could even compost it in the garden. No one ever found a sea turtle choked to death on a paper bag.
Besides, there is just too much plastic in the world, and anything that will reduce our addiction to fossil fuels is okay by me, too. They are trying to pass a law against disposable plastic shopping bags in California, and the chemical companies that make the bags are bankrolling a huge campaign against it. I've never been accused of being a tree-hugger, but so what if I am? I don't think Tolkien would have objected too strenuously to such a tag. Trees are good things, and even though paper is made from trees, I think paper will be better for the environment in the long run than plastic bags. Hug a tree, then, if you must, but just leave off worshiping the thing, please.
There is a third way, though, that our ostensibly benighted third-world brethren and sistren have wisely employed for a long time... BYOB; Bring your own bag. Neither paper or plastic, but maybe cotton or some other fiber. We have taken to keeping several stout, reusable shopping bags in our car, and use these at Aldi or Dollar General or wherever we go to shop (they don't work quite as well at the liquor store, where we normally require a heavy wood crate and a forklift).
These bags can also be used to carry contraband to dull business meetings, to smuggle rotten fruit into political rallies, or to carry books full of dangerous ideas to League gatherings. You could carry a picnic lunch for four, or a Chesterton-sized snack.
The idea of durability seems to upset some who see our economy (that phantom) as being built on disposable goods; "Why... make a really durable shopping bag and you rob your fellow citizens of jobs! Make an oak desk for the ages and you put Ikea out of business! What would all those Fischer-Price employees do if we all went around building our own playhouses? The World Economy is right now cringeing in a corner because Americans have selfishly decided to spend less and save more, and to even do without from time to time. This perfume could have been sold, and the sales tax given to the state legislature, and the gold under your floor belongs to Standard & Poors..."
Recent Comments