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The Best Answer May be "Neither"
Each year, Americans use more than 100 billion plastic shopping bags, consuming an estimated 12 million barrels of oil. After a very short working life, these bags retire to landfills where they take 500 or more years to break down, or become litter that clogs storm drains and threatens marine wildlife. City governments that have passed or are considering plastic bag bans include Steamboat Springs, Colorado, Portland, Oregon, California cities San Francisco, Oakland and Santa Monica, Boston, and both Annapolis and Baltimore in Maryland. Consumers in these cities must use paper or bring their own bags.
Sam Shropshire, a Democratic city council member in Annapolis, says that many city residents moved to the city to be close to Chesapeake Bay, which is being damaged by the 95 percent of plastic checkout bags that end up in landfills or the environment. "We intend to put a stop to it right here in Annapolis," he says. Large chains will have six months to stop using plastic; smaller companies nine months. Merchants can substitute 100 percent recycled paper bags for the banned plastic.
According to Reusablebags.com, four of five shopping bags are made from plastic, and the average American family accumulates 60 of these "free" bags in only four trips to the grocery store. More than 90 percent of plastic bags are simply thrown away. Arthur Liu, account executive at EPI Environmental...