Businesses make the change from plastic to paper

CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio — Cuyahoga County officials say residents use around 319 million plastic checkout bags each year, and nearly all of them end up in landfills. In an effort to keep plastic out of the landfills, the county gave $130,000 in grants to 31 local businesses to switch from plastic to paper bags.

Additionally, it launched an interactive map to help consumers find participating stores.

Mac’s Backs Books on Coventry made the switch to paper bags around a year ago. Owner Suzanne DeGaetano is happy with the change.

“It’s just been really easy to do, and frankly, I wish we would have done it a long time ago,” she said.

She explained her customers have been supportive of the change from plastic to paper.

“Most people bring their own bags or have big purses or we have paper bags,” she said.

DeGaetano said it’s the least they can do to help, and there’s still a long way to go. She has plans for even more environmentally-friendly changes.

“With books we also get a lot of plastic in our shipments so we’re trying to figure out the best way to recycle those, that’s the next big hurdle for us,” she said.