Lament for a Paper Bag

Posted by Nathan Pralle On July - 12 - 2010

I miss paper grocery bags.

The other day while shopping at Fareway (our local, Iowa-based grocery store), I stopped the friendly bagger-boy and said, “Hey — can I get paper for the produce?”   He looked a bit surprised, but responded in the positive and started bagging up the fresh things in some classic, heavyweight brown paper bags.

Paper Grocery BagIt’s at this point in this blog entry that any number of environmentalists and/or grocery store owners start spinning madly in their graves.    The tree-huggers are getting all teary at the idea of their main squeezes being turned into pulp simply so I can haul my Cheetos home and the store owners are fainting from the pure cost involved with paper vs. plastic.

It’s not that I don’t get it.   Yes, I understand, paper bags are less friendly to the environment vs. plastic (because they consume trees) and infinitely less favorable over cloth, reusable bags.   I have some of those, too.   And we use them…sometimes.    And plastic otherwise.   I get it.

And store owners, no need to fret; I doubt the paper bag will exist much longer and reusables will be come the de facto standard of the industry, saving you millions a year in providing packaging to your customers.   I know how much you welcomed the advent of plastic.   I get it.

But I lament still for the paper bag.

First you have the stiffness; oh god, the stiffness!   For all those who have ever bagged their own groceries, we all realize the same thing:  plastic bags are shapeless.   They fall into whatever configuration you force them to and they have zero ability to stand up against the items inside.    They become this shapeless sloth that sits in your trunk and, if you’re lucky, doesn’t spew cans all over when you turn a corner.   Paper, on the other hand, gives authority to its contents.    It provides the basic four walls of stability upon which you can neatly construct a solid stacking inside.

There’s a fine, fine art to bagging swiftly and correctly in a paper bag that simply doesn’t translate to plastic.   I’ve seen expert baggers place an entire grocery cart just so into two bags in such a precise manner that it would bring you to tears from the sheer beauty of it all.

Secondly, the SMELL!    Paper has this wonderful, nostalgic smell to it of the pulp and the glue that cannot be matched.    One of my favorite scents in the world is fresh peaches inside a paper bag.    Tell me that it doesn’t make you want to shiver and I won’t believe you.

The world moves on, much like it does for anything else, and not necessarily in a bad way.   Reusable bags are smart, they’re neat, and they’re efficient.    Plastic suffices in the meantime, despite its negatives.   But I shall always lament for the texture, feel, and smell of a real paper bag.

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Filed Under: Emotions

9 Responses to “Lament for a Paper Bag”

  1. Matt G. (1 comments) says:
    12 July 2010 at 09:27

    And yet, if you shop at Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s (both of which are generally patronized by the eco-crowd), the default bag is the classic brown paper bag. I would contend that paper bags are far more environmentally friendly than plastic, provided you live in a town/city that has a decent recycling program. Where I live, we have single-stream recycling (paper, plastic, metal can all be mixed) and a paper bag is the perfect container to sit in the closet, or under the sink, to collect said recyclables. Plus paper, coming from trees and being a renewable resource, is less detrimental to the system if it is left out of recycling. Plastic on the other hand, which is usually petroleum based, must be recycled, or the resource is lost. So be proud, insist on paper bags (if you don’t use reusable ones).

  2. Stacey Thomas (51 comments) says:
    12 July 2010 at 09:49

    I always request paper for chips, baked goods and produce. I recycle them by using them to put hot cookies on. They absorb grease and keep my counters tidy. It also provides me with a bit of nostalgia, as that’s what my mother, grandmother and Mammo (great grandmother) did. I recycle plastic bags too by using them in all the smaller trashcans in my home. There’s just something about coming home with your groceries in paper…I don’t know if it’s a retro thing, or what, but I feel more “satisfied” with paper bags than I do with plastic. Yes, apparently I am a dork.
    Stacey Thomas recently posted..The Simple Woman’s Day Book July 11- 2010

  3. Nathan Pralle (181 comments) says:
    12 July 2010 at 11:55

    @Matt: True enough — we went to TJ’s just a bit ago and got paper bags in lieu of having reusables (which we forgot because we were on a short vacation and didn’t think to pack them, silly us.) And right, for all I know, they’re better off than plastic bags in the ocean, so…that’s a plus. We have a mostly-single-stream recycling here (paper has to be separate, the rest can be together) so we burn all our paper (we’re allowed to burn in town) as it’s a small enough footprint not to matter too much. But we reuse as much as we can first before doing so.

    @Stacey: Never thought about using them as cookie coolers — good idea! I’ll have to remember that. And you’re right, it feels like you “got more” or something when you bring home the groceries in paper, like you really bought something.

  4. Marie (125 comments) says:
    12 July 2010 at 12:00

    I think a plastic bag is worse for the environment. Sits around for billion years in landfills, floats around forever in our waters and kills animals. Gets stuck in trees and no one can get them down or don’t bother to. At least trees are a renewable, but slower, resource. It’s not a great choice, but better than plastic, in my opinion.

  5. The Casual Perfectionist (9 comments) says:
    12 July 2010 at 13:45

    And out here (in Colorado), they’re trying to ban plastic bags, and some stores have stopped carrying them.

    I’ve actually switched to the cloth reusable bags. I know that makes me sound like a crunchy hippie, but I love how strong they are, and how much you can get in each bag without breaking your back. The handles make it possible to carry quite a few at once, and my trips from the car upstairs has been cut down drastically. Plus, the stores where I frequent give me a discount for using the reusable bags. Can’t beat that!

    I loved using paper bags as book covers. Did you ever do that? That way, our school books could be protected, and we could personalize them however we saw fit.

  6. Billygean (5 comments) says:
    12 July 2010 at 17:41

    We never had paper in the uk, I’d love to smell the peaches/paper combo!

    Why don’t you take your paper bags to the store and reuse them – they will be your reusable bags!

    Bg

  7. Normative Behavior (1 comments) says:
    13 July 2010 at 03:36

    I too request paper bags when I forget my reusables or when my kids’ school runs low on them-they use them for food waste, (& recycle) which gets picked up weekly to be composted. The kids learn the difference between un/renewable waste, recycling & composting. I think that’s an awesome lesson. Plus plastic bags suck-ever try to put a cereal box or a 1/2 gallon of milk in one? It splits down the side as if you’d taken a razor blade to it!
    Next post? Lament the lack of training the baggers receive-I often want to ask them if they’ve never taken a bag of groceries home. Tomatoes at the bottom, bleach with my produce. Get outta my way I’ll bag it myself. At least that way I know the rat poison isn’t in the same bag as my pork chops!

  8. The Sister (42 comments) says:
    13 July 2010 at 10:05

    I also ask for paper bags if I don’t have my reusable ones…mainly because I find them better for re-using. Although, I have to admit that I LOVE Hy-Vee’s & Target’s paperbags the best because they have handles! EVEN BETTER! I love the idea of cooling cookies on them! Much better than wasting paper towels & wax paper!

  9. Rachel V (15 comments) says:
    14 July 2010 at 00:06

    Eeek, I know people won’t like my response. I have recently started getting the reusable bags, but I don’t use them for my groceries. I use them as gift bags (disney store ones, super cute), bags to haul my kids clothes to and from their aunties house or just use them to stuff things in when I stash them in my crafty closet.

    I purposely ask for plastic bags when I go to the stores. I use them as the “poopy doo bags” for Colbys diapers. Probably a double whammy, right? Not only am I still using plastic bags, but we are still using disposable diapers. The plastic “poopy doo bags” are the only thing to contain that horrific toxic smell from those poopers.

    The only time we use paper bags is when I am buying fruit that needs some ripening or ice cream that needs to stay frozen on the ride home.