"Plastic bag OK?"

Simple question, right? You hear it routinely at the supermarket checkout counter. However, now that more members of the community are "going green," there's a movement afoot to reduce or eliminate our usage of plastic bags.

The biggest usage of plastic bags is at the supermarket checkout counter, so efforts are intensifying to eliminate the need for these bags. Not everyone is sold on plastic bags as an environmental hazard — some point to our disposal and recycling habits as the culprit — but there's no question that these bags are heading to the landfill in great numbers, and in some cases, trashing the environment, choking land and sea creatures, and contributing to the contamination of the ocean.

Why not try something else?

We went to environmental enthusiasts, specialists and philosophers to talk about extra plastic baggage and the alternatives.

AQUATIC ATROCITIES

According to Stuart Coleman, Surfrider Foundation's Hawaiian Islands field coordinator, we use about 100 billion single-use plastic bags per year, too many of which end up in the oceans.

About 52 metric tons of plastic is collected in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands annually, most of it plastic bags.

"People don't realize that one person with one plastic bag makes a difference," said Robynne Riley, a Web designer in Pa'ia, Maui, who headed the "No Mo' Plastic Bag Project" in Pa'ia.

"Most of these bags are used for only 12 minutes before they're thrown away," Riley said. Then, "they stay in landfills for years and years."

Hundreds of years actually, unless blown out of the landfill.

It's estimated that plastic makes up just under 50 percent of trash blown out of landfills nationwide.

Plastic bags are not biodegradable, but they are photodegradable. They break down into small bits over time and remain in the soil, waterways and oceans. Organisms eat the little bits and the plastic ends up in the food chain because larger animals eat the organisms that eat the plastic.

Sometimes the animals just eat the plastic, mistaking it for food.

"Sea turtle hatchlings like to eat jellyfish, and for the endangered leatherback turtle, that's its main source of food," said Suzanne Frazer, president of Beach Environmental Awareness Campaign Hawai'i. "Soft plastic in the water like plastic bags and balloons are mistaken by turtles as food."

Plastic bags kill thousands of marine mammals and more than 1 million sea birds annually, on top of being a menace to the environment.

They are also made of oil, using up one of the globe's most valuable resources. The 100 billion bags that we use nationwide per year require 12 million barrels of oil to produce.

THE ALTERNATIVES

The top recommendation of environmentalists is a reusable fabric shopping bag. If made with organic ingredients, these bags can even be composted when they are worn out. Each bag can be used hundreds or thousands of times.

"If you start using a reusable tote bag, you save an average of 400 bags per year," Coleman said.

"Even if only 1,000 people use them, what a dramatic difference that would make collectively in Hawai'i."

If you absolutely must use disposable bags, some environmentalists recommend bio-bags. Made with corn starch, they will biodegrade, rather than breaking down into plastic fragments that can get into the food chain and contaminate the environment.

Though single-use bags are the target of most activism, other plastic bags are also common — particularly as trash liners.

Riley recalls a situation where she saw an entire trash liner blow out of the can and into the ocean.

Getting rid of plastic trash bags is a well-discussed topic on many online forums. One alternative is lining your trash can with newspaper or other repurposed paper. There are advocates for the use of biodegradable bags, bags made from recycled materials, reusing pet chow bags and using no bag at all.

"Because I live in a condo, it's hard to do composting and wrapping," Coleman said. "Personally, I use Seventh Generation bags, because I have to walk up and down stairs."

These bags are stronger than bio-bags and are made with a minimum of 55 percent recycled plastic.

Others, like Riley, use biodegradable bags.

And still others don't use any bag. They just wash out their trash can more often.

GET THE DRIFT, BAG IT

Plastic bags are bad for marine life and landfills and they use up finite natural resources. But Suzanne Jones, recycling coordinator for the City & County of Honolulu Department of Environmental Services, poses the question: "Is it plastic bags that are the problem, or is it littering?"

"By far the superior method is for everyone to use reusable bags," Jones said. "(But) the true issue is litter."

Proper disposal of your trash, especially plastics, remains key to keeping these materials out of the land and ocean. Participating in beach and stream cleanups will also help.

Using less plastic can also be part of the solution — and reusable bags are an environmentally friendly strategy.

The problem is getting people to use them regularly.

"You have to form a habit," Riley said. "Form a new mental mode so you associate shopping with bringing your own bag."

"We know that in the long run, we have to get rid of these plastic bags," Coleman said. "That's a fact. We know that we have to change our behavior, it's just a matter of when that will happen."