Groceries

The Boston Globe reports:

A sharp run-up in plastic costs is starting to have an impact on supermarket shelves, pushing up the price of products packaged in plastic and forcing some beverage companies to consider shifting to cardboard.

Citing the aftereffects of the Gulf Coast hurricanes, many milk producers have started passing along surcharges for raw materials and fuel costs. One food industry official, who asked not to be identified, said most milk producers added a surcharge of 9 cents a gallon last month and tacked on another 5-cent increase this month. The price increases by and large are being passed along to consumers.

Replacing plastic with cardboard will probably be a net health benefit, assuming that fewer chemicals leach out of cardboard than of plastic - if I remember, I'll check on this further sometime.

As the critical documentary Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Prices opens, the New York Newsday has an inconvlusive article that summarizes studies on the short-term economic impact of Wal-Mart stores.