POWAY: Teens take on plastic bags

Reusable bags touted as 'green' option

By DARRYN BENNETT - Staff Writer | Friday, April 4, 2008 10:48 PM PDT ∞

POWAY ---- Paper or plastic?

The question has long dogged shoppers, but for Natalie Erb and Kevin LaRue, the answer is simple.

Neither.

As part of their senior project, the 17-year-old Poway High School students asked the Poway City Council to consider a ban on plastic bags throughout the city.

"Or at least encourage people to use reusable bags," LaRue said this week, holding up the black canvas tote he uses for shopping.

The proposal evolved into a campaign called B.Y.O.B. ---- bring your own bag. The teens said they decided to focus on educating people about reusable bags after council members in October indicated that they wouldn't outlaw plastic bags in the city.

This week, the two teens drafted an agenda report proposing the City Council "encourage the use of reusable bags" in Poway. The item is set to be heard in May, said Jennifer Lewis, a spokeswoman for the city and the students' project adviser.

Erb and LaRue said they have already received pledges to forgo plastic bags from members of several groups, including the Poway's Women's Club and the National Charity League Poway chapter.

"Plastic's just become a way of life," said LaRue, wearing a shirt labeled 100 percent organic cotton. "People don't know how bad it is for the environment. But when they learn, they're usually willing to change."

Ninety percent of all grocery bags are now plastic, according to the Progressive Bag Alliance, an industry group of plastic bag manufacturers. Estimates of the number of plastic bags used around the world each year could be as many as 1 trillion.

Erb and LaRue said that's far too many.

They want to distribute 500 reusable shopping bags containing fact sheets about plastic throughout the community and high school. The problem is finding a sponsor to cover the $1,000 they estimate it will cost to buy the bags and print the fact sheets, they said.

The idea evolved last summer when the soon-to-be seniors realized their days playing Smash Ball on the beach in Del Mar were numbered. They began brainstorming ideas for the senior project, a capstone effort that involves extensive field research, interviews and job shadowing.

As avid environmentalists ---- they lead Poway High's environmental club ---- they said they were inspired by San Francisco's citywide ban on the use of nonbiodegradable plastic bags by supermarkets, drug stores and other large retailers.

In April, San Francisco became the first major American city to ban the bags.

"We thought, maybe we can do that in Poway," Erb said.

After researching the issue, the two began lobbying Poway retailers and organizations for donations, speaking at community events and nagging their peers in an effort to "get the movement going," they said.

"When we talk to businesses, we pitch it as an advertising thing," La Rue said. "Help us out (with a donation) and we'll carry bags with your company's name on them."

When Erb urges her friends to be "anti-plastic," she appeals to their fashion sense.

"(Reusable) bags are trendy," she said. "Even Nordstrom and Macy's sell them."

LaRue said he's also had good luck getting friends to opt against using plastic bags.

"I'll tell them, 'you don't need a bag for that CD you just bought,' " he said. "And usually, they'll say, 'You're right, I don't.' "

Reusable bags have essentially quashed the paper-or-plastic debate, environmentalists say.

Paper bags are biodegradable, recyclable and made from trees, a renewable resource. But compared to plastic bags, producing them generates more pollution, and manufacturing and recycling them requires more energy.

Also, paper bags take up comparatively more space than plastic ones in landfills, where they are slow to degrade, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

On the other hand, the polyethylene plastic bags most retailers use are nonbiodegradable and made from crude oil and natural gas, both nonrenewable resources. They can be recycled, but according to agency statistics, less than 5 percent are.

And there are concerns that plastic bags end up in the ocean, where marine animals swallow and choke on them.

Today, most retailers still offer customers free plastic bags and sell reusable ones as an alternative. Still, employees at several Poway groceries stores this week said few customers bring their own bag.

Erb, who plans to study environmental science when she starts college in September, said she's optimistic the project will make her hometown "greener" and inspire others to get involved.

"If some juniors want to pick it up and carry (the campaign) on when we're gone, that would be great," she said.

Contact staff writer Darryn Bennett at (760) 740-5420 or dmbennett@nctimes.com.