Your view of what I'm going to share here will be colored by your stance on the environment. You likely fall into one of three categories, preservation, conservation, or utilitarian. I don't believe you can support a preservationist view biblically. I also think it is a stretch to support it logically unless you truly believe that the planet itself is more important than human beings. I'm going to assume that most people value human life above the planet and even above other organisms.
I'm hoping that most folks would be either in the conservation camp or the utilitarian camp. Conservationists believe in wise use of resources. Utilitarians believe that resources are here for our own benefit and are therefore think more liberally about them. But even they would realize, I hope, that using resources wantonly will eventually destroy them so that they would no longer benefit anyone. I'm also hoping that either of those groups would find what I want to share here beneficial.
Back to the bags. The purposes, best I know, for using paper bags are that they are biodegradable and therefore a renewable resource; and that they are not made from petroleum products. What's the beef with petroleum products? Well, preservationists and conservationists might say that getting petroleum products out of the ground degrades the environment too much (I disagree). They also might be scared of running out of fossil fuels and would therefore seek to minimize their consumption. While utilitarians might say that petroleum quantities are limited and we need to use them for more worthwhile things like gasoline. Although they would be least likely to have a problem with using fossil fuels for anything.
Once upon a time the environmental police convinced the nation that it was bad to use paper bags because too many trees are cut down to make paper (newsflash, trees grow back if you plan it right). Now that using fossil fuels has been vilified for various reasons, the environmental police want us to stop using plastic bags and use cloth. But cloth is obviously not practical for lawn trimmings so they have apparently pushed for paper bags (likely constructed from recycles paper). And people who want to take care of the environment are starting to buy into the notion. You see the result in the picture: large bags full of grass, leaves, sticks, and flowers waiting to go to the landfill.
At last, I'll get to the point. I trust you'll see the irony. In my opinion sending that much biomass to the landfill is way more harmful to the environment than not sending it regardless of what it is packaged in. Here's why. Lawn trimmings are rich organic matter. They contain loads of carbon, nitrogen, potassium and other materials that serve as nutrients in living systems. In a landfill they will remain largely in their present form. They will not decompose for hundreds of years due to the anaerobic environment inside the "dump". The more lawn waste we send to landfills, in paper or plastic, the more nutrients we are taking out of the natural cycles.
What's the solution? It is really very simple. Studies have shown that when done correctly cutting grass with a mulching mower can result in a healthy lawn. This also cuts down on the need for added fertilizers because you are returning nutrients to the lawn. Other lawn wastes can be composted. Finished compost makes great fertilizer for your lawn or garden. Larger items will eventually compost too. But if you don't have time for that you can have them chopped into mulch. You could even use them for firewood; that's not a great option but I like it better than the landfill.
So, there ya go. If you really want to be nice to the environment, don't throw your yard away. But if you are going to throw it away, it really doesn't matter too much what kind of bag you use.
