Paper or Plastic? Plastic is so much worse

I watched "Our Synthetic Sea" again this week. I saw this movie a couple of years ago in Berkeley where Jan Lundberg of Culture Change presented it to a group of people interested in the health of the oceans. If you have not seen the film, please contact www.culturechange.org to get a copy. The movie is really good at showing how devastating the plastics plague is. The photo of this bird shows how it was killed by the plastic pieces that it fished out of the ocean.

Although it takes so many more resources to produce paper bags, I think plastics are a lot worse due to the long term effect of the garbage they produce. According to the movie, every piece of plastic ever made is still around. They show how little pieces are floating in the sea and are eaten by fish, birds, and ultimately us.

Another good film on plastics is blue vinyl (http://www.bluevinyl.org/animationlow.htm). Vinyl is one of the worst plastics around, so if you can don't buy it. Either for your house, your bag, your skirt, or shoes. It's become an alternative to leather, but it seems it may be an environmental disaster.