Paper or Plastic? Try NeitherS  San Francisco recently
instituted a citywide ban on plastic bags, then started charging
a ten-cent fee for the paper bags you have to use instead. The
idea is to promote reusable bags, but the law is also designed
to rid the city of plastic litter—this would benefit the
environment, because paper bags are considered more ecologically
friendly. Right? Not quite.  The notion that paper bags are more
environmentally friendly than plastic is a "popular
misconception," according to a 2005 report for the Scottish
government. "It depends on what environmental issues you see as
being more important," Lisa Mastny, director of the Worldwatch
Institute's consumption project, told the WSJ. As it turns out,
paper and plastic bags both carry significant environmental
costs. But the costs occur on different ends of their
operational life cycles. In the eternal dilemma of paper versus
plastic, there just isn't an easy answer.  Americans have been
toting groceries in brown paper since 1852, whe