Thanks everyone for these wonderful suggestions. It's quite a provocative
subject. I welcome more if any one else has observations.
FYI, the client makes the paper bags for Whole Foods. They use a combination
of post consumer waste and post industrial waste--the later category is more
controversial, as you probably know. They are very sensitive to finding
themselves in a position of being portrayed as a 'green solution,' and are
already getting attacked (even though they themselves are not doing any
promoting...it's all coming from Whole Foods). Interesting dilemma for
them...they would love to capitalize on their relationship but are afraid to
tout their green credentials for fear of it costing them in the long run. So
they are trying to understand the ideological landscape and get their own
house in order...at least I think that's their objective...
On 6/10/08 8:37 AM, "Joel Gehman" <
jag525@PSU.EDU> wrote:
> Hi Jon,
> One place to start may be M.B. Hocking. 1991. Paper vs. Polystyrene.
> Science (251): 504-505. It evaluates paper vs. plastic disposable cups. I
> believe other papers have looked at diapers and bags. Perhaps try Google
> Scholar or Web of Science using this reference.
>
> In their book "Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of Goods and Services"
> Hendrickson, Lave and Matthews (2006) credit the controversy created by
> Hocking (1991) as leading to the field of life cycle assessment (LCA).
>
> I suspect that in your scenario both/neither can be shown to be "better"
> than the other. It all depends on your assumptions about material
> extraction, manufacturing intensity and downstream endpoint.
>
> My 2 cents is to suggest your client consider a third way. Charge for
> bags, encourage customers to bring their own reusable bags. Whole Foods,
> Ikea and others have gone this direction. Make the reusable bags out of
> something recycled (like plastic bottles).
>
> Some other links/cites:
>
http://money.cnn.com/2008/06/03/pf/savemoney_planet/
>
http://money.cnn.com/2007/03/14/magazines/fortune/pluggedin_gunther_plastic
> .fortune/index.htm
>
> Joel Gehman
> Ph.D. Student
> Pennsylvania State University
> Smeal College of Business
> 447A Business Building
> University Park, PA 16802
>
jag525@psu.edu
> (814) 865-7149
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