Arizona Living

Kim Wall Grout was inspired to break her plastic-bag habit after a visit to Germany last summer where even the tiniest of candy wrappers is recycled.

She was already pretty green.

Grout and her husband, Jeff, walk to the grocery store, carrying armfuls of canvas bags. She's a third-grade teacher in Tempe and bikes the 4 miles to school. They don't own a clothes dryer.

But she couldn't kick her plastic-bag habit.

She felt guilty with each plastic bag she used. Grout could picture them stacking up in landfills, clogging waterways and tangled in treetops. It made her little green heart ache.

"All that plastic will always be here," Grout, 38, bemoans. "It never disintegrates."

She comes by her obsession with waste honestly. Growing up, her mom would insist that she bring home the brown paper sack from lunch so she could use it again. Her grandfather rinsed out and reused plastic bags.

Giving plastic bags the sack seemed impossible, especially with a yard and two pets. But Grout was determined.

"It's small steps," Grout says. "The more that you do, you start discovering other things you could do. If you look at all the things you could and should be doing, it's overwhelming, but if you take a few steps at a time, you realize it's not that hard."

Plastic everywhere

But it wasn't going to be easy either. Americans love their plastic bags, carrying home 80 percent of groceries in plastic. In 1982, only 5 percent were bagged in plastic. Plastic bags keep sandwiches fresh and preserve leftovers. And then we throw them away - some 100 billion every year in the United States.

As with any addiction-recovery program, Grout's first step was to take a hard look at herself and dig deep for the answer to a very tough question: "Paper or plastic?"

Plastic bags, made from petroleum or natural gas, take centuries to break down. In the U.S., about 2 percent of plastic bags are recycled, and that figure drops to 1 percent worldwide, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Stores use plastic because it's cheap, less than 2 cents per bag. Paper costs more - 4 to 6 cents per bag - and while it means cutting down trees, it's easier to recycle because all recycling programs take paper. Then again, paper bags have a capacity three to four times that of plastic, according to Earth Resource Foundation in California's Campaign Against Plastic Plague.

So what's a green girl to do? For Grout, the best answer to "paper or plastic?" was neither.

Shopping

Grout started small, taking canvas bags to the grocery store and, if she was just popping into Target for a few items, refusing a bag, instead tucking smaller purchases into her purse and carrying bigger items.

"For a tube of toothpaste, you need a bag?" she asks. "It's just so automatic to stick stuff in a bag that we don't even think about it."

When she first started taking canvas bags to her grocery store, she would get askew glances from the baggers, but she remained determined. Some stores offer discounts to shoppers who bring their own bags. Whole Foods refunds 5 cents per bag.

Then there was the problem of remembering to take the canvas bags to the store. She solved that by keeping some in her car at all times, in case she decided to stop for a few things. She also has a pile of them in the garage where she can see them when she gets into her car.

In the kitchen

Next, Grout turned to the kitchen. She knew she couldn't completely eliminate plastic bags in the busiest room of her house. In her mind, her best bet was to reuse as many plastic bags as possible, reducing the number she'd use over time.

She uses the plastic bags she already has to line the trashcan.

The Grouts already produce a smaller amount of trash than the average family because they have a compost pile in the backyard, so all melon rinds, vegetable peels and egg shells are tossed in there. Eventually, the compost will wind up in the Grouts' garden.

Grout does pack snacks like crackers, granola and nuts in small plastic bags and takes them to school, but each bag is washed and reused over and over. She encourages her students to do the same, policing the trashcan in her classroom. They may roll their eyes at her, but they take their plastic bags home and use them again the next day.

In the yard

From the kitchen, Grout went outside to figure out how to rid her life of the black Hefty plastic bag synonymous with lawn clippings.

Most cities require residents to bag and tie grass clippings, but the Grouts bought an electric mower that scatters cut grass across the lawn. It's called "grasscycling." As the clippings decompose, they act as a natural organic fertilizer, returning nutrients and moisture to the soil.

Grout says the mower cuts the time they spend on the lawn in half and saves money on plastic lawn bags.

"And the yard looks great," she says.

Picking up after pets

Grout was nearly plastic-free when she thought of another challenge, one staring her right in the face with beautiful big eyes. It was Willi, the family's 35-pound Australian cattle dog. Dog poop is a problem when you're trying to give up plastic. And the Grouts have a dog and a cat.

To pick up after Willi, the Grouts use Scoopies, a mitt made of biodegradable corn plastic ($4.50 for a box of 30). Pick up the poop, reverse the bag off your hand and tie it off. The result is a package of poop that will eventually degrade, though not until it's well away from the Grouts' backyard.

For the cat, she uses the World's Best Cat Litter, made of corn and flushable ($39.99 for a 34-pound bag). Grout says it lasts longer than regular litter, so the cost is just a little bit more. She doesn't use a plastic liner in the litter box.

Spreading the word

It took almost a year for Grout to get to this nearly plastic-bag-free point. She says other people would make the same changes if they knew how. While there are plenty of commercials on television for what's quick and easy, she says, there are few about reducing, reusing and recycling.

"People in general want to do what's right for the planet because what's right for the planet is what's right for us," Grout says.

She went to Germany again this summer with a clearer conscience about her plastic-bag consumption. She did pack some items that she wanted to carry with her on the airplane into small resealable bags, but, of course, they had already been used many times before.

Reach the reporter at karina.bland@arizonarepublic.com.