Justification Report for Barnes & Noble - Research Paper Example

?.PLASTIC BAGS V. PAPER BAGS A Justification Report for Barnes & Noble Transmittal This report deals with the question of the environmental impact ofboth paper and plastic bags. The purpose of this report is to suggest certain practices to the organization Barnes & Noble which are environmentally friendly and which will give favourable publicity to them. The key elements of the proposal are charging customers for plastic bags and then donating those proceeds to charity which will promote reusable bags and benefit Barnes & Noble. Executive Summary This report provides an evaluation of the environmental impact of paper bags and plastic bags. Through this evaluation I will come to a conclusion on the kind of actions, the company Barnes & Noble must take to ensure favourable publicity from environmentally conscious actions. The main points expressed in the report are: Plastic Bags are harmful to the environment because they are non biodegradable and generate huge amounts of litter. Plastic Bags are toxic to animals and marine life. Paper Bags, though biodegradable and recyclable need a lot more resources than plastic bags to be produced. The impact of both plastic bags and paper bags is thus, negative. The solution is to use reusable bags. Barnes & Noble must charge a nominal amount for plastic bags, and then donate the proceeds to charity. By publicising this, Barnes & Noble will get favourable publicity and consumer behaviour will be affected because they will use more reusable bags. Barnes & Noble can also sell branded reusable bags thereby ensuring more publicity with minimal investement. Introduction This report seeks to examine whether paper bags should used over plastic bags at Barnes & Noble, the largest bookseller in the United States.1 The question is whether the environmental concerns that exist for plastic bags are absent in paper bags and what position should Barnes & Noble choose to improve public relations through environmental activism. Plastic bags and paper bags both leave an environmental footprint but the key question is which one affects the environment more. Problem Statement Paper bags are widely seen as better than plastic bags since they are supposed to be biodegradable. However, for a company like Barnes & Noble to switch to paper bags and totally eliminate plastic bags requires significant investment and thus such an investment should be backed by verifiable fact. Thus, there is a need to study whether the costs of switching from paper bags to plastic bags are justified by the benefit to the environment which in turn will give favourable publicity to Barnes & Noble. I propose to evaluate the benefits that plastic and paper bags have over each other and propose a solution that will benefit the environment and Barnes & Noble. Method Used I did an examination of the various primary and secondary sources available to understand the environmental issues concerned with both plastic and paper bags. Based on those findings I proposed a plan of action that will give favourable publicity to Barnes & Noble along with being cost effective. Findings Plastic bags are ubiquitous in America today because they are cheap to produce, plentiful and easy to carry. They have also captured 80 percent of the grocery store market. 2The biggest threat that plastic bags pose environmentally is litter. The Environmental Protection Agency of the United States points out that 31 million tons of plastic waste was generated in 2010 and made up 12.4% of Municipal Solid Waste. Only 12% of this plastic waste was recycled.3 Plastic bag nuisance has become a big problem in places like Ireland, Bangladesh, Australia where they are either banned or heavily taxed. However plastic bags have huge economic advantages because they are far cheaper than paper bags. In fact, consumers and producers who earlier used to oscillate between paper and plastic bags have switched to plastic bags because of the economic advantages. 4 However, one city in the United States, that is San Francisco decided to ban plastic bags in favour of paper bags in 2007. It is however, pointed out that while paper bags are biodegradable and recyclable and come from trees which are a renewable resource, they generate more air and water pollution. Manufacturing and recycling of these bags also use a lot more energy than plastic bags.5 Recycling of plastic bags is one argument that is used to justify plastic bags over paper bags. However, the Environmental Protection Agency has stated that costs of recycling are very high. While there is some demand for recycled plastic bags the recycling rate is also very low. Even though plastic bag disposal was not seen as a very big problem by the EPA it is a huge problem in other countries which do not have such advanced disposal infrastructures.6 However, as pointed out earlier, paper bags have their own problems. There is enough evidence to conclude that producing, using and disposing plastic bags puts less burden on resources than paper bags. Now that more and more cities have started accepting plastic bags in curbside recycling programs it is getting more difficult to justify that paper bags have a significant advantage over plastic bags.7 The significant thread running through all these articles and reports is that while in some situations paper bags have a distinct advantage in usage like in places where there is inadequate disposal processes both plastic and paper bags have significant disadvantages associated with them. One of them cannot be held to be better environmentally than the other. The actual alternative that has been suggested by various articles and the EPA is that consumers bring their own reusable bags.8 This has been ensured by taxes on plastic bags in Ireland, while businesses like Ikea have began to charge some money for plastic bags, or just promoting the practice of reusable bags by selling them.9 Analysis Plastic Bags and Paper Bags both have significant advantages and disadvantages which means that if Barnes and Noble switch to a paper bags only policy they would have an economic disadvantage and also not gain any benefit out of being perceived as supporting the environment. Paper bags consume huge amount of resources and plastic bags have big disposal problems. Thus, if Barnes & Noble want to improve their public relations and gain favourable publicity they should not switch from paper to plastic bags. Rather, the solution is to promote the practice of reusable bags. They can start by charging a nominal sum of money to the customer for every plastic or paper bag that they sell a product with, and then donating that nominal amount of money per bag to an environmental organization or cause. They can get favourable publicity and like the example of Ikea referred in the findings there will be a change in the consumer’s behaviour which can be stressed repeatedly through advertisements. The debate on plastic and paper bags will also be thus brought into the limelight. They can also sell branded reusable bags at their stores which will emphasize their contribution to the environment. This process does not require any investment and can represent a public relations coup for the company. Conclusion The benefits that paper bags have over plastic bags are offset by the disadvantages of paper bags. Switching over from plastic to paper bags requires a degree of economic investment and since environmentally there are no significant advantages I would not advise Barnes & Noble, the bookseller to have a policy of allowing only paper bags. Rather, Barnes & Noble to charge a nominal amount for every plastic bag that they used to give away with the product and then donate it to an environmental charity. This would give favourable publicity to Barnes & Noble and alter consumer behaviour to make them use reusable bags. Reusable bags can also be sold at Barnes & Noble outlets which will emphasize their environmentally friendly policies. Sources Barnes & Noble, topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/barnes-and-noble-inc/index.html. Are Plastic Grocery Bags Sacking the Environment?, available at http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/09/0902_030902_plasticbags.html. Plastics, available at http://www.epa.gov/osw/conserve/materials/plastics.htm. Taking aim at all those plastic bags, available at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/01/weekinreview/01basics.html Recycling: Plastic Bags. Prolific Problems, Author :Angela Spivey, Environmental Health Perspectives , Vol. 111, No. 4 (Apr., 2003), p. A208. Paper or Plastic, a new look at the Bag Scourge, available at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124473522987806581.html Read More