IBM Granted "Paper-or-Plastic?" Patent

theodp writes "On Tuesday, IBM was granted US Patent No. 7,407,089 for storing a preference for paper or plastic grocery bags on customer cards and displaying a picture of said preference after a card is scanned. The invention, Big Blue explains, eliminates the 'unnecessary inconvenience for both the customer and the cashier' that results when 'Paper or Plastic?' must be asked. The patent claims also cover affixing a cute sticker of a paper or plastic bag to a customer card to indicate packaging preferences. So does this pass the 'significant technical content' test, IBM'ers?"

Comments

Re:This won't have an effect in Belgium

[electrictroy]

There are a lot of religious folks.....

er, I mean, "environmentalists" who need to watch the Penn & Teller episode "Recycling is Bullshit". The process of recycling costs three-to-four times as much energy (mostly in collection and cleaning costs) than simply making new product.