Grocery Bags

Although Rip Rense’s article (“Fear, Loathing at the Checkout,” Editorial Page, Jan. 6) comically displayed the everyday dilemma we face in this country whenever we shop in a grocery store--do we want our items in paper or plastic bags?--from an environmental point of view, the situation is anything but funny, as he briefly admits. Still, Rense concluded his message in a light manner by deciding that from now on he will demand both kinds of bags. I suggest that neither is acceptable if we want to save our planet.

If we are to prevent our world from becoming as lifeless as the moon, we must understand that every brown bag we use and throw away is another nail in the coffin of our ecosystem; every plastic bag we add to the garbage dump is a lethal weapon for an unsuspecting animal who might ingest bits of it, or for any human animal who might breath its noxious fumes when the bag is burned.

Recently, some members of my church decided to stage a quiet protest against such ecological travesty. They are now carrying their groceries home in reusable cloth bags or woven baskets, the way so many people in the world do.

Wouldn’t it be a wonderful gift to give the people of the 21st Century if each one of us was so thoughtful?

W. DONALD BEAUDREAULT

Minister

Pacific Unitarian Church

Rancho Palos Verdes