Plastic or paper? Maybe neither

Grocers to promote alternatives, recycle

Massachusetts officials and supermarket owners will sign a five-year conservation agreement today. (Pat Wellenbach/ Associated Press)

Environmental officials and the owners of hundreds of supermarkets throughout the state are expected to sign an agreement today to reduce by a third the plastic and paper bags the grocers distribute in Massachusetts.

The pact would mark the first statewide effort to control the billions of bags that end up as litter everywhere from tree branches to beach fronts.

The five-year plan, devised as state lawmakers and municipalities have proposed bans or charges for the disposable bags, aims to cut the number of bags provided at supermarkets and grocery stores from the estimated 1.5 billion a year today to 1 billion a year in 2013. The reductions will come from a combination of incentives for customers to recycle old bags and from closer state scrutiny of bag purchases by supermarkets.

"We think this is the right way to go about reducing the number of bags, because charging for them would be a regressive tax and banning them would create a burden for many of our customers," said Christopher Flynn, president of the Massachusetts Food Association, which represents more than 500 supermarkets and independent grocery stores in the state. "We see this as a start."

But environmental groups and lawmakers who favor more sweeping action argued that the voluntary reduction is not enforceable and leaves a massive number of plastic bags still flowing out of supermarkets.

"While it's a good start, it's not enough," said James McCaffrey, director of the Massachusetts Sierra Club. "We should be able to get to zero."

There is growing concern over the effect of plastic shopping bags, about 100 billion of which clog US landfills each year, according to Worldwatch Institute, an environmental research group in Washington, D.C. Of all the bags in circulation, less than 1 percent are recycled every year, according to the group.

The petroleum-based bags are popular because they cost less than one cent to manufacture, and many consumers prefer them because they are easy to carry. Industry representatives also say they are better for the environment than paper bags. The American Chemistry Council has said they use 70 percent less energy and emit 50 percent less greenhouse gas during production than paper bags.

But environmentalists have lobbied against them because they are difficult to recycle, often end up obstructing gutters and sewers, and take centuries to decompose in landfills.

The agreement, which is to be signed this morning at Shaw's Supermarket in Dorchester, calls for stores to reduce their use of disposable bags by offering customers incentives to bring in used bags, setting up stations near checkout counters where customers can recycle old bags, and requiring supermarkets to provide data to state officials about the number of bags they buy and distribute every year.

State officials said the agreement would allow supermarkets to provide creative incentives, such as coupons to customers who bring in old bags or paying them up to a five cents for each bag they reuse. The state also plans to help train checkout clerks in the art of packaging and the sale of inexpensive nylon or canvas reusable bags.

Laurie Burt, commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Protection, said the agreement would not preclude state legislation or local efforts to reduce the number of bags distributed at supermarkets.

She added the main advantage of the agreement - which will include supermarkets such as Shaw's, Stop & Shop, Market Basket, Big Y, Foodmaster, Roche Brothers, and Hannaford Brothers - is that bag reduction efforts will begin right away.

"We expect this agreement will exceed our goals and lead to a major sea change in the behavior of consumers and supermarkets," Burt said. "We think this is an aggressive goal to start with, and that it is achievable."

The agreement follows more extensive responses elsewhere to the proliferation of plastic bags, which were introduced in the United States in 1957, according to Worldwatch Institute.

Countries including Ireland, South Africa, and China have cracked down on the free distribution of plastic bags, leading to a sharp reduction in the number of bags in circulation, according to the Institute. San Francisco in 2007 became the first major US city to ban plastic grocery bags, and officials in Seattle, Phoenix, and Portland, Ore., have considered similar policies.

In Massachusetts, efforts to ban plastic bags have cropped up in Boston, Sturbridge, and in Plymouth, where Walmart and other businesses strongly lobbied against the policies.

On Beacon Hill, state Senator Brian A. Joyce, a Milton Democrat, filed legislation last year that would charge a two-cent fee that would gradually increase to 15 cents for each plastic bag used. Representative Matt Patrick, a Falmouth Democrat, sponsored a bill this year that would prohibit plastic bags, except those that are biodegradable or used for fresh produce, baked goods, and a few other things.

Patrick said he proposed the bill after seeing the plastic bags as he walked along the beach and learned how the bags can choke birds and other wildlife, which often mistake them for food.

"It's not acceptable to have billions of plastic bags in our rivers, streams, oceans, and all over our streets," he said.

David Abel can be reached at dabel@globe.com.