Recycling Those Plastic Bags

As more and more cities and communities are banning the use of disposable plastic bags, retailers in increasing numbers are beginning to help recyle them. We routinely take them back to Ray's and Walmart although like many people, we've been using various cloth tote bags more. When we forget to bring them (which is more than we'd like) we ask for paper and use them for garbage ___ at least they decompose.

I'm not sure where to put the plastic bags they use to keep my newspaper in, though. Until I saw www.plasticbagrecycling.org on one. The site has lots and lots of info on the types of bags, where they can go, etc.

And how about those styrofoam egg cartons (and take-out food containers)? They're light enough to mail back to the company but I'm not patient or forward-looking enough to do that so when we can we buy eggs in the old-fashioned gray corrugated boxes that are biodegradable.

Speaking of "bio" things the Nov. '07 issue of Smithsonian magazine had a teriffic critique article on biofuels. Here's an excerpt from the story discussing the subsidies offered to ethanol producers:

"Biofuel subsidies might make sense some critics say, if they favored "cellulosic" ethanol instead (of corn) ___ fuel that comes from breaking down the cellulose in the fibrous part of the plant, such as the corn stalk instead of the kernel. That wouldn't put direct pressure on food prices, and might even reduce them by providing a market for agricultural waste products.

Cellulosic technology is also the key to exploiting such nonfood plants as switchgrass, and it promises an improvement of more than 80% in greenhouse gas emissions compared with conventional gasoline. But while an experimental celluslosic ethanol plant is now operating in Canada, and several others are being built in this country, most experts say it will take years for the technology to become economically competitive. There are also political realities. "Corn and soybean interests haven't spent 30 years paying campaign bills for national politicians" says one critic "to give the game away to grass.""