Paper or Plastic. Arghh! Sure, paper is biodegradable, but, the trees cut down, and the general pollution required to make a paper bag is not negligible. Why don’t they make paper bags out of something like hemp, or some other pulpy crop, rather than trees? I think it is about time for that, don’t you? Of course, there are still issues of fertilizer abuse and paper-making pollution, but I think any civilization that can get us to the moon can handle that too, no?

And plastic? Well, we should all know those plastic bags are a waste of a limited resource, and not biodegradable. They get into trees and wave to us their trashy little hellos, and they tragically get into waterways where they are consumed by various denizens of the water world and lead to sickness and death.

What is the solution? People tend to be too lazy to bring their own cloth bags with them, and, for a big shopping trip, you would need a lot of those things. A possible answer to this shopping dilemma is the biodegradable shopping bag. San Francisco has made it city law, along with South Africa, Taiwan, Bangladesh and, ahhhhh….Paris.

Check in your grocery store, as they may already offer a plastic bag recycling program.

• Biodegradable Bags Are Law in San Francisco