Which is greener, paper or plastic? You might be surprised

The shoppers at Toronto's Blue Banana Market can choose from the wares of more than a dozen merchants, but when they make a purchase, it will be handed over to them in a paper bag.

"When we first started, we made a conscious effort to use 100-per-cent recycled paper bags," said owner Michael Horwitz, who rents space to merchants in his gift and card shop in Kensington Market. "We wanted to help the environment in that way. We weren't interested in using grocery store-style plastic bags."

Yet over the past few years, various studies have indicated that the carbon footprint of the biodegradable paper bag is no smaller than that of its now criticized cousin, the plastic carrier bag. The question has left many retailers in a quandary: Should they offer one or the other, or both?

Research by bodies as diverse as the National Cooperative Grocers Association and the Progressive Bag Alliance have found that plastic bags use less energy and water to make than new paper bags or those with 30-per-cent recycled content. It costs less to transport them because of the enormous difference in weight, and they create less solid waste. Even recycling a plastic bag uses less energy than recycling a paper bag.

Consumers can make a difference by simply buying and using sturdy bags for as long as possible, says Vince Cobb, chief executive officer of reuseit.com, a Chicago company that markets reusable alternatives to disposable items. People can also recycle plastic grocery bags in dozens of ways, including lining their garbage bins with them.

But when it comes to advice for retailers, he admits to being somewhat stymied. "For shopkeepers, it's a tough call," he said.

Littering, for example, "is a factor that might give a slight nod to paper," he said. "It's in the very nature of plastic bags – they're so strong and lightweight, they go airborne very easily – to be seen littering our landscape. And they're used in such massive quantities that we're seeing billions of these things entering the environment every year. That doesn't really happen with paper."

Mr. Horwitz pointed out that his company, which is a member of the Recycling Council of Ontario, uses only bags made wholly from recycled paper, and pays a 30-per-cent premium to do so. "We feel it's definitely worth paying the extra, because we're not interested in cutting down trees," he said.

Other retailers, from Whole Foods Market to the Liquor Control Board of Ontario, are doing the same, offering customers only paper. "It felt like the right decision to offer something that is biodegradable as opposed to something that isn't,,canadagoosecheapjackets at discount prices from Timepiecetrader." said Kate Cobb,Ed Hardy Caps Buy On Sale and monclerouterwear with high quality, spokeswoman for Whole Foods, which is based in Austin, Tex. "I always think: What's going to still be around in a thousand years? And paper may not, but definitely plastic bags will be flying around."

Municipalities around the world are banning plastic bags, while the city of Toronto passed a bylaw in 2009 stipulating a charge of five cents a plastic bag to help reduce their use.

That has resulted in as much as a 75-per-cent drop in the use of plastic in most major grocery chains, according to figures from the city's Solid Waste Management Services.,chloehandbags for sale lowest price $50. An audit of single-family homes also found a 68-per-cent reduction in plastic shopping bags in household garbage going to landfill.

What's more, many companies are donating the proceeds from the five-cent fee to environmental or other non-profit organizations.

On the other hand, new paper bags raise the spectre of deforestation, effluents from pulp and paper mills and the reliance on fossil fuels to make them, leaving their use much less green than many consumers may think.

And, as Mr. Cobb pointed out, take plastic grocery bags away from people who use them for garbage and they will simply have to buy them.

Meanwhile, Roots Canada has found a way around the dilemma by providing customers with biodegradable or compostable bags. "You want to try to do business in a way that minimizes – we can't totally eliminate it – our environmental footprint," says director of communications Robert Sarner. Even the printing on their shopping bags is water-based and lead free.

Rather than throwing up their hands in despair,We've seen all the best canadagoosesalecheap of 2011. consumers have options. In Toronto, plastic grocery bags that are not reused can often be recycled as easily as paper ones. Compostable bags can be used for trash going to landfill, since the plastic bags around organic garbage are removed and sent to landfill anyway.

For Bert Archer, a Toronto-based writer who contributed to the book GreenTOpia, the best solution for consumers is no special bags at all. "Just use what you already have," he said.

Retailers, meanwhile, can share information with their customers.

"I'd say, give out information cards at checkout, saying. ‘This is what the plastic bag does, this is what the paper bag does, this is what the canvas bag does,'" Mr.,cheappaneraiwatcheswholesale can offer you wholesale pricing on name brand designer. Archer suggested. "And offer them all, because that's what stores do. If you want to succeed, you have to give people what they want. But what you can do is inform them."

Uniforming an army

When the war started the United States had a regular army that numbered 16,000 men. Those soldiers bore the responsibility of manning the wide range of coastal defenses, frontier forts and suppressing the sporadic uprisings by Native Americans. Such a small number could not put down the Southern rebellion by itself.

President Lincoln first requested 75,000 volunteers and then added another 500,000.

The states responded quickly, but in many cases,Most nylonbagfactory can ship the same day FREE via Ground shipping. the new regiments did not resemble their regular counterparts. Those soldiers wore uniforms that were all blue.

Volunteer regiments had no regulations to follow relating to standard uniforms. What resulted was a true potpourri of style and color.

Vermont was no exception. Its first three infantry regiments wore gray uniforms, the standard for the militia at the time. The 2nd and 3rd Vermont Regiments switched to blue. The 4th and 5th Vermont Regiments were first issued the Regular Army Hardee hats before acquiring the standard kepi.

Other states carried the lack of uniform standards to more of an extreme.

Here are some examples:

1st Minnesota — This regiment fought at Bull Run wearing red woolen shirts and black trousers.

16th New York — Outfitted in blue the regiment received light colored straw hats as headgear. Though comfortable to wear in the Virginia summer weather, they also attracted enemy fire.

13th Pennsylvania Reserves — Wearing a deer's tail in the front of their hats, the regiment became known as the "Bucktails." Having an established reputation for their marksmanship, Confederates knew what faced them when they spotted the decorative hats.Intensify your own Grace with authenticmonclercoats.

79th New York — Known as the Cameron Highlanders, the soldiers wore tartan trousers of the Cameron clan and Scottish caps.

Then, there were the Zouaves. These units adopted the fancy African styled uniforms. A typical Zouave would be seen wearing baggy wool pantaloons in red or blue, gaiters, sashes, short jackets of varying colors adorned with much braid and fezzes atop the head. New York supplied a number of these units, but states throughout the north had regiments dressed in these colorful uniforms.

Since Zouave uniforms were not a standard item supplied by quartermaster, most often the commanding officers would dip into their own pockets to out fit their men. Coupling this monetary outlay with the effort of raising the regiment often led to the units being known by the colonel's name rather the regiment's official designation. This prompted the naming of Duryee's Zouaves, Hawkins Zouaves or Ellsworth's Zouaves. Theses were all New York units. Ellsworth's even had a second nickname,Publique anuncios sobre bestchloehandbags gratis. the Fire Zouaves, because many of the soldiers were form New York firefighters.High quality canadagoosejackets1 Product of well known brands .

Combining the bright uniforms with fighting prowess created colorful, nicknames. The 14th Brooklyn became known as the "Red Legged Devils" in honor of their red baggy pants. Wear and tear exacted a toll on the Zouave uniforms, but many found a creative way to maintain the varied clothing through four years of war.

Just the issuance of a hat caused an entire infantry brigade to gain a name. When Gen. John Gibbon assumed command of a brigade consisting of the 2nd, 6th, 7th Wisconsin Regiments and 19th Indiana, he outfitted them in the Hardee hats of the regulars. It provided an esprit de corps within these Western regiments that were part of the Army of the Potomac. They soon were called the Black Hat Brigade. However, that changed after the Battle of South Mountain in September 1862. Standing firmly under intense enemy fire, a general commented they "must be made of iron," and the new name stuck; the Iron Brigade.

The North did not have a monopoly on uniforms. The South had colorful regiments.Swiss canadagoosecheapjackets offer genuine timepieces from Omega, A unit consisting of Italians made up the Garibaldi Legion, The men wore black, high peaked hats adorned with feather, short jackets of red wool and pantaloons of bottle green.

The Louisiana Tigers wore Zouave dress. The men had red fezzes, short blue jackets trimmed with red, and blue and white striped baggy pants. The soldiers tucked their pants into blue and white striped socks.

The greatest challenge facing the new soldiers regarded proper fit. Usually, only four standard sizes existed and men never fit them specifically. One new recruit wrote that soldiers were "obliged to fit himself to the size."

He continued in this comedy of errors of dressing, "Here were short men with trousers so long they had to be turned up well-nigh to the knee to prevent the wearer from tripping. There were tall men with nether garments so short as to reveal a pair of attenuated calves & to render inevitable one of two things, the adoption of a mincing gait or posterior disruption."

Or, there was the situation of the Rhode Islander who stood 4 feet 11 inches in height. A message related his clothing predicament, "His first pair of army drawers reached to his chin. This he considers very economical, as it saves the necessity of shirts."