How to get people to use paper bags?

Question

im doing a campaing were i live with some friends to get the little shops to use paper bags instead of plastic the only problem is, is that we are 13 and they think we are joking and look down on us, please help and give me a few ideas

Answer 1

First off, when I was 13 you could only get paper bags. Which you could only carry two maybe four at a time without risking dropping them or having them rip.

Today, I can hook an entire trunk load of plastic bags on every digit on my hands and carry them all in at the same time.

You want to get the local grocery store to only use paper bags? Convince them to raise their grocery prices high enough to cover the cost of paper bags with handles.

Answer 2

Why paper bags?  We started using plastic so we could cut less trees and forests.  Canvas, or reusable bags (bring your own) are the best and most "green" way to go.

Answer 3

Okay so you have the info for prices and stuff, that is good. Make sure you have this printed out and such, and give a good estimate on how much the paper bags would cost for a whole month's use. And get the price it costs them now, and than get the difference. I think paper bags might be more? And if they are, just point out how much of a little difference it is.

Then print out some charts about how using paper bags will save the earth. Explain how they can be recycled easier, or how they decompose faster than plastic bags. Get some primary sources on this. You can use these facts and make a poster on it all.

Also get signatuares from the kids at your school and give it to them. Try to collect at least 500 signatuares, and show the stores how by changing to paper bags, you are pleasing the whole community.

Then also you can decorate the bags. Decorate the first month's bag's with recycle signs, and such. And try to make them as nice as possible. And maybe this is help convince the store.

So pretty much, you just need to make the store's forget you are 13. Speak to them formally, and try to make a convincing argument. I think it's a great idea you are doing, good luck!

Answer 4

threaten to take off all your clothes while in the supermarket unless everyone inside gets paper instead of plastic

Answer 5

Why not take the bags into the shop and make a purchase. Politely refuse their plastic bag and explain why you have bought your own. I do hope they are recycled paper bags though.

Answer 6

believe in yourself. For example paper bags can save the life of a hyperventilation victim.  Remind your critics that man existed for a million years without plastic.  It is a new technology. How can we know its real impact?

Answer 7

Please look into reusable canvas bags instead.  Paper seems like a good choice over plastic in that it is biodegradable, but that is not the only thing to consider.  Aside from killing trees, which we all know about, the factories that produce paper products produce tons of pollution.  And I mean "tons" literally--carbon dioxide, hazardous air pollutants, etc.  Also, many inks used on paper products are environmentally unsound.

Your state pollution control agency may have information on reusable bags.  Don't just look at the website--call someone and ask for their help.  If you don't get the right person on your first try, they can re-direct you.  Part of their job is to keep unnecessary materials out of the waste stream.  Also, if you get c**p from older people, remind them that YOU will be responsible for cleaning up after them in the future if they don't act responsibly now.

Answer 8

Let the shops do what they want. They are small businesses and have to look after themselves as best as they can. The truth is that there are more valuable things you can do to help out. For example, maybe get your school to start a petition to save, for example, a forest that might be cut down.

Answer 9

I have the BEST solution to your problem, ready?  What you do is keep your nose out of other peoples buisness.  I think that is probably the best solution to someone like yourself.  I don't think they appreciate you very  much for telling them how to run their buisnesses.  Maybe plastic bags are cheaper for them did you think of that?  So I suggest you keep your bleeding heart in your tye-dye microbus and out of their lives. :-)

Answer 10

Get some samples made up and hand them out to local shopkeepers.

Answer 11

why would you uses paper bags, by using reusable bags you are helping the environment even more, try campaining on that.

sis in front of stores and sell or give away reusable grocerybags.

print out little fliers on why it is better for the environment.

state things like

platic bags actually are not biodegradable, even though they claim to be.

by not using paper bags you are saving however) many trees

good subject

Answer 12

Do you have research on the difference between the two? Statistics always help me change, but I need the info to be really easy to read and perhaps take home with me to think about. Cloth bags are better.

Answer 13

Actually, because you're only 13 i can see why they will not take any notice of you - it's all to do with experience. Wether you know it or not, up until the mid 1960's that's all we had - brown paper bags, sting bags, straw bags and the good old shopping trolley which cut everyones ankles to pieces! When it rained the paper bags got wet and everything in them fell out! I certainly do not ever want them back again! In Germany they have plastic bags which are bio-degradeable so why can't we have them here? You can use them probably for around twelve times and then when they fall apart the supermarkets take them back, they're shredded and either composted, recycled as new bags or put into the new surfaces on roads. Why can we not do that here? Why do we just have greens hopping around with ideas and no solutions?

Answer 14

Tell them that in Britain we use 13bn plastic bags a year which each take up to 1000 years to rot down. Then ask them to think about it.