Paper, cotton, burlap or biodegradable? Reusable bags attract retailers, shoppers alike

First they got rid of bag boys. Now, bags are in the crosshairs. Plastic ones, that is. Out with landfill-choking plastic and in the with new environmentally friendly reusable bags. In Ann Arbor, anyway.

Excerpt:

Throwaway plastic bags are so last year.

What’s in: Reusable sacks of every shape, material, size, color and cost that show off your environmental consciousness.

“You see them at the checkouts everywhere,” said Ann Arbor resident Katie Jackel, who picked up some cheap reusable bags at Whole Foods Market earlier this year.

The sale and use of reusable shopping bags instead of common plastic bags appears to be growing, fueled by concern for the environment. Some 4.27 million traditional plastic bags, sacks or wraps were thrown away in 2006, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. That same year, 360,000 tons were recycled.

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