The problem is plastic bags are used just about everywhere. As a consumer, almost everything I buy reaches my home in a plastic bag. Grocery, food, medicines, shopping, even milk... anything I can think of comes in a plastic bag. And they are popular because they are so very cheap.

Besides its not really possible to carry our own bags everywhere, how much ever we may want to. To me it looks like a loosing battle :(

It is not practical to completely avoid the usage of plastic....but u can avoid takin it for petty stuff like a strip of pills from the medico or a packet of Lays n cookies that can be carried in hands without resorting to the bags.
As a routine every month I clear my collection of bags (that find their way in to my home along with veggies, fruits n groceries) and pass them on to the local vegetable and fruit sellers.
They in turn reuse the bags :)

You know what? The answer is brown paper bags that are recycled. I wonder if recycling brown paper bags are less expensive. That is something I would like to know. Sometimes we need something to carry.. The idea of cloth bag isn’t bad, because it can be used again and again

Its a real nice practice you have of giving the used bags to be reused.
And yes, while we can’t really kick out the plastic bags out of our life, we can surely bring down the use and refuse when we don’t need one.

Jaiyant, thou I don’t know the exact cost difference between plastic bag and recycled paper ones, but I have spoken to some shopkeepers and they have said recycled paper bags are too expensive compared to plastic bags. Carrying your own cloth bag is definitely the best solution of all.

Paper bags are without doubt costlier than plastic. By the way, did you ever wonder where all these paper bags came from? For that matter, paper? Mostly from clearing forests and cutting trees.

I am aware that people are making paper out of Bagasse (sugar cane pulp) but it is a lot more expensive than traditional paper making it again not viable. In college the Bagasse paper books were lot costlier than plain old paper books cos of the making charges and hence few bought them.

Plastic is hard to replace cos it is cheap, very dexterous (cos of its carbon chain) and a lot easier to use in industries. Ecological alternatives without economic impact rarely succeed, if ever. So I would say the ’Cloth Bag’ thing is what we can settle for... For now :) (I hope i didn’t end up writing a whole column)

Sameer, you are absolutely right about papers coming from trees and thats why Jaiyant and myself were referring to recycled paper bags. And after reading this post and the other post on same topic by Deepa and all the comments that came on it, cloth bag seems to be a clear and only choice.

Btw I did end up writing a whole big story instead of a comment for that other post :)

You guys are right.. Cloth bags seem to be the best solution at the moment until better options can be made available. I think low cost jute bags work well and they are sturdy too. Easily washable and low maintenance. @ Sameer: Paper is always expensive but then isn’t there something called green deforestation? I recently read in California trees are grown specially for the purpose of our needs and the greenery is replenished soon as the trees are cut. Everything is done in a planned manner. However, it still is an expensive thing to do I guess. I’m gonna read Manish’s other post in that article.. Lol

In our state plastic bags have been banned (at least officially) but of course there’s no use trying to get rid of em in full. I mean toffees are still going to be sold in their little plastic wrappers.

But coming back, we see a large number of people resorting to jute and cloth bags here. And the paper bags that are usual are made of newspapers. I guess that can be classified as recycling and I for one do not doubt their ’green’ credentials too much.

Hey its nice to know that at your end the intensity of this plastic menace is less and common use of newspaper bags is news to me :)