Lincoln Square Chamber of Commerce - Going Green in LIncoln Square


August 30, 2008

Going Green in Lincoln Square

Would you like paper or plastic? It's the question food shoppers are asked every day a simple choice that even environmentally conscious shoppers still find confusing.

Here's how paper and plastic stack up side by side:

To make all the bags we use each year, it takes 14 million trees for paper and 12 million barrels of oil for plastic. The production of paper bags creates 70 percent more air pollution than plastic, but plastic bags create four times the solid waste enough to fill the Empire State Building two and a half times. And they can last up to a thousand years.

Still perplexed as to which choice is the more environmentally friendly?

Many Lincoln Square businesses are already working on making their businesses greener and Lincoln Square Chamber of Commerce & Lincoln Square Foundation would like to help. We have designed a reusable all natural shopping bag. This eye-catching shopping bag is durable, light weight, and even large enough to carry to the Farmers Market.

Listed below are the many merchants that have joined in growing greener and are participating in giving customer discounts. (Make sure and check back often, as the list will continue to grow.)

Adriatic Sunshine
Bloom Yoga Studio
The Book Cellar
Cafe Selmarie
The Chopping Block
European Import Center
Gallimaufry Gallery
Hanger 18
Multiple Choices
Northern Home Furnishings
The Perfect Cup
Provenance Food & Wine
Salamander of Chicago
Terra Firma Co

Each merchant is offering a discount in various ways. Carry your green bag in and ask about their discount!

A brief history of Plastic bags:
"TIME Aug. 13, 2007"

Petroleum-based grocery bags hit the checkout aisles in 1977, 20 years after plastic was first used in sandwich "baggies."
Up to 1,000 estimated years it takes for a plastic bag to decompose.
1,460 plastic bags used in a year by an average family of four in the U.S.
12 million barrels of oil used to make the plastic bags that the U.S. consumes annually.
Less than 1% percentage of all plastic bags that get recycled in the U.S.
88.5 billion plastic bags consumed in the U.S. last year
500 Billion estimated plastic bags sold worldwide every year.

Please join us in creating a Greener Lincoln Square.