Geek Speak — HabitableZone

Geek Speak » in reply to P.S.

The number of angels which may dance on the head of a pin is...
Robert — (archived)

...about where we are on the relative merits of paper and plastic. Yep, paper sits politely on the seat while plastic sprawls like a pile of milk-sated kittens. Yet in compensation I've learned that I can thread half a dozen plastic grocery bags on my right arm, a couple on my left, and still be able to fish my keys out of my pocket to unlock the front door, without setting down the bags as I'd have to with paper. Safeway giveth, and Safeway taketh.

My perspective on recycling is just focused on the relative recovery rates of the two materials. Paper recycling is lucky to achieve 25% because of damage to the fibers from repulping, thus requiring a large amount of new pulp to augment the old to give recycled paper acceptable mechanical strength. I believe plastic yields to be on the order of 90%, with similar energy input and a different mix of toxic effects on the environment. Neither material is particularly clean or free of environmental impact when you look closely.

Which is all well and good, but the fact is that my local Safeway only uses plastic now anyways, so really it's all a moot point. I'd be using plastic even if I didn't have reason to believe it's an OK choice. I don't think you're wrong to use paper, and good for you for recycling it.

Oh, hey, I just remembered our tree-hugger exchange somewhere. I don't avoid paper bags out of respect for trees. The reality of us all living in a "web of life" is that most of us end up food or building material for somebody else. I'm not a vegetarian and I don't see anything immoral about eating meat. Prey animals serve a purpose in the "web" as meaningful as that of predators. I think my attitude is more the traditional aversion to waste of life through needless killing. Sport hunting by well-fed Americans seems barbaric and pathological to me because they can't claim necessity, and without necessity all that's left is naked pleasure in death. We should celebrate that?

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