Read Our Degradable Plastic Blog News Update

Whole Foods has banned plastic bags. The only free bags that it provides to customers at the checkout are paper bags.

Whole Foods is leading people to believe that it is making a positive contribution to the environment by providing paper bags rather than a plastic bags. It is not. It is hurting the environment.

An environmental activist who is unconnected with the plastic industry has filed a complaint against Whole Foods, claiming that the company is misleading people into believing that paper is better for the environment than plastic, and disputing the recycled content claims on Whole Foods' paper bags.

We agree with the complaint. We note that Whole Foods has stated that it eliminated plastic bags because: "It takes more than 1,000 years for a plastic bag to break down in a landfill."

As we explain on our page about landfills, paper bags decomposing in landfills emit methane, a greenhouse gas. The last thing that we want in our landfills is anything that decomposes. The fact that plastic bags last a thousand years in a landfill is a good thing!

A plastic carryout bag weighs about 0.2 ounces. The Whole Foods paper bag in the picture below weighs approximately 2 ounces, which is 10 times more! The Whole Foods paper bag certainly does not have the carrying capacity of 10 plastic bags. The Whole Foods paper bags requires much more fuel to transport and takes up much more space in landfills than plastic bags.