• Whole Foods market will eliminate the use of plastic grocery bags by Earth Day
• An estimated 100 million bags will be kept from polluting the environment
• Grocery store among others begininning to offer reusable bags
• Environmental experts say every little bit helps

Whole Foods Market shoppers soon won't be able to carry their pearled barley and organic asparagus home in plastic bags. By April 22, Earth Day, Whole Foods will eliminate the use of plastic grocery bags altogether.

Kate Klotz, a Midwest Whole Foods Market spokeswoman, said in an e-mail she estimates about 100 million plastic bags from the nation's 270 Whole Foods locations will be kept from polluting the earth from Earth Day through the end of the year.

As an alternative to plastic, Whole Foods began offering bags made of 80 percent post-consumer waste materials, or plastic from recycled beverage bottles, about one month ago, Klotz said.

The "A Better Bag" option costs 99 cents per bag. Customers receive 10 cents off their purchase with the use of "A Better Bag" or their own reusable bag.

Whole Foods will continue to offer paper bags.

Autumn Faughn, marketing and community relations specialist for Whole Foods Market in Milwaukee, 2305 N. Prospect Ave., said she has seen more customers bringing more reusable bags into the store as shoppers become more environmentally conscious.

"We are really passionate about our green mission," Faughn said.

The Milwaukee Whole Foods currently orders 32,000 plastic bags per month, she said.

"That's nearly a quarter of a million bags that our store alone will keep out of the environment," Faughn said.

Daniel Zitomer, Marquette associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, said Whole Food's initiative to eliminate plastic grocery bags is a help to the environment.

Plastics put in a landfill will take hundreds of years to break down, which is not a "reasonable amount of time," he said.

But as for the debate between paper or plastic, Zitomer said the answer is not clear.

Zitomer said that although paper bags seem to be the better choice because they are natural, paper production expends lots of

water and energy as well as creates wastewater and CO2.

But plastic production can also create waste and expend water and energy, he said.

This is why Zitomer, a cloth bag user himself, said reusing cloth bags is better for the environment.

"Although if you look at the balance in the U.S. and the amount Whole Foods sells, it may be undetectable because it's so small," he said. "But taking that step serves as an example."

Whole Foods is not the only store taking steps to a more environmentally friendly grocery experience.

Vivian King, a spokeswoman for Milwaukee-headquartered Roundy's Supermarkets, which owns Pick'n Save, Copps, Rainbow Foods and Metro Market, said all 153 store locations have recycling bins for plastic grocery bags.

The bags from these bins are reused to make plastic decking, she said.

Roundy's recycles 125,000 pounds of plastic each month through bags brought back by customers and through company plastic use in processes like packaging, King said.

Roundy's also offers a canvas bag option. As of September 2007, Roundy's sold reusable canvas bags for $1.49.

But King did not comment on the future of completely abolishing plastic grocery bags.

"We are constantly evaluating our processes and systems to see where we can be more green and where it is efficient to deliver the services our customers expect," King said.