saw a customer at a local food store 'sporting' a reusable grocery bag. But she was buying some plastic garbage bags. This immediately caused me to wonder: might it not be more efficient to stock biodegradable disposable grocery bags that people could use to transport groceries and then use at home as garbage can liners? Perhaps this might cause the least waste of all. After all, although reusable grocery bags may seem better than simply using plastic, disposable bags and throwing them out, many people reuse the disposable bags rather than purchasing grocery bags (which come with packaging and generate other types of waste, through the process of manufacturing and distributing the products).

Another danger of using recyclable grocery bags is that they may be viewed as a panacea, while they do nothing to contain the tremendous waste that results from the use of almost all packaged products, and the...
[ View Full Essay]