Shifting Baselines : Shifting Shoppers: Paper or Plastic?

The Shifting Baselines Blog

Jennifer Jacquet is a Ph.D. candidate with the Sea Around Us Project at the UBC Fisheries Centre. She works closely with Dr. Daniel Pauly, who coined the term Shifting Baselines, the syndrome on which this blog focuses.
Josh Donlan is a conservation scientist and a Visting Fellow at Cornell University. He often hides out in the backcountry of the Teton Mountains, pondering bygone giant beavers and ground sloths. He also is also the founder and Director of Advanced Conservation Strategies and has a habit of restoring remote islands.

Scientist turned filmmaker Randy Olson, founder of the Shifting Baselines Ocean Media Project is also a blog contributor.

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New Projects & Publications

July 26, 2008: Randy Olson's film Sizzle premieres on the East Coast at the Woods Hole Film Festival in MA.

July 22, 2008: Jennifer Jacquet gives the talk "A Way Forward in a Sea of Market Based Initiatives to Save Wild Fish" at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, CA.

July 19, 2008: Randy Olson's film Sizzle premieres on the West Coast at Outfest in Hollywood, CA.

July 17, 2008: Jennifer Jacquet gives the talk "In Hot Soup: Shark's Captured in Ecuador's Waters" at the Society for Conservation Biology Annual Meeting in Chattanooga, TN.

July 9, 2008: Jennifer Jacquet gives the talk "Flawed Data, Reef Fisheries, And Food Security: A Close Inspection Of Marine Fisheries Catches in Mozambique, Tanzania, Fiji, And The Solomon Islands" at the 11th International Coral Reef Symposium in Ft. Lauderdale, FL.

June/July 2008: Josh Donlan attends training for his Kinship Conservation Fellowship in Bellingham, WA.

May 2008: Josh Donlan is an author on a new paper in Ambio titled High impact Conservation: Invasive Mammal Eradications from the Islands of Western Mexico.

May 15, 2008: Jennifer Jacquet reviews Bottomfeeder: How to Eat Ethically in a World of Vanishing Seafood at the Tyee.

April 2008: Trade Secrets: Renaming and Mislabeling of Seafood by Jennifer Jacquet and Daniel Pauly is published in Marine Policy.

April 2008: Randy Olson and the Puget Sound Partnership release the flash video Shifting Baselines in the Sound:.

Mar. 2008: Dr. Josh Donlan joins the Shifting Baselines blog.

Jan. 2008 Jennifer Jacquet launches the Eat Like a Pig Seafood Wallet Card

Online Resources and Blogs

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Shifting Shoppers: Paper or Plastic?

Category: Solutions
Posted on: April 7, 2008 5:00 AM, by Josh Donlan

Paper or plastic? You know the drill. Well if you live in Seattle, you might want to throw those cloth bags in your trunk so you won't forget them. Otherwise...it will cost you. Seattle mayor Greg Nickels put forth a proposal that would charge Seattle shoppers a 20-cent "green fee" for every new paper or plastic bag. A similar program in Ireland reduced disposable bags by 90 percent. Clearly, the mayor understands what incentives many Americans respond to. And of course, the green fee will make a handy revenue stream for the city. Even better, revenues will be used to distribute free usable bags to Seattle households. Hats off to Mayor Nickels and Seattle. Let's hope other cities quickly follow.

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Comments

They cannot ban plastic bags fast enough for me. Damn it, if you know you're going to the store, bring a frakkin' bag already! Yea Seattle!

Posted by: decrepitoldfool | April 7, 2008 6:07 AM

I'll gladly pay the nickel now and then - i use shopping bags as my garbage bags, and that is a huge savings over buying garbage bags. I don't think i've bought a garbage bag in 5 years, but i do have to make a point of not using my resuables once a month or so to restock my supply :)

Posted by: Gelfling | April 7, 2008 9:09 AM

Halifax Regional Municipality in Nova Scotia may soon ban plastic shopping bags. HRM has a pretty good start on garbage collection. A few years ago they issued a compost collection cart for every household, into which all organics (meat scraps and oils included), plus boxboard can be placed. This is collected and composted by the municipality. They also collect recyclables, including glass, plastic, corrugated cardboard, egg cartons, paper, and have placed a limit on how many actual garbage bags they will collect weekly per household.

A weakness in this system is the dependence on plastic bags to hold the recyclables and paper (and any garbage).

At least two grocery chains here actively encourage reuseable cloth bags, selling conveniently sized ones at the checkouts.

People's habits can be changed. There were strong objections to the compost bins to begin with, but they've become routine quickly.

Posted by: Bee | April 7, 2008 9:56 AM

Mabye they could use some of that "green fee" to clean up some of that lost fishing gear that seems to be doing so much damage to the sea life out in Puget Sound.

Posted by: doug l | April 7, 2008 3:20 PM

I started using cloth bags about 6 months ago. Both major groceries in town sell cloth bags at the checkout, but they're more expensive and larger than the plain ones I bought at the Hobby Lobby in various sizes. I was pleasantly surprised to find the Albertsons credits me 5 cents per bag when I bring them, and since they are closer I usually shop there. I think this is a great way to do things for the moment. Until more people get used to the idea, and see how positive it is, there's no reason to punish people who haven't jumped on the bandwagon yet.

Posted by: TJ | April 7, 2008 5:47 PM