Well one big way we could save on resources would be to make paper bags all over the world instead of plastic bags. There is a good valid argument however against such bags and that is: It rains and paper + water = fail. However if we were to coat the paper in a form of natural wax coating it would be water resistant to most showers (bear in mind the average life expectancy of a plastic bag is 11 minutes we'll carry it for 10 mins or so then bin them) atleast for the amount of time on average we need to get them home. The best thing to note about the idea of wax covered paper bags is; it's 100% recycable. Simply by during the paper boiling process distilling or skimming the now liquid form wax off and keeping it we can 100% recycle the paper in to new paper bags and when it comes to coating them we can re-use the wax we skimmed from them. I do not deny however this idea would be very expensive to develop and get started but then what with recession fears, oil shortages and all that jazz going on it's probably the best time for the governments to set such proceedures in place and thus save on plastics (made from oil) and to spend their way out of recession.