When International Paper announced the shutdown of its No. 2 paper machine at the Albany Paper Mill, resulting in the layoff of 40 employees starting Sunday and lasting at least three months, the news illustrated an inconvenient truth: When we cut down on packaging, we are costing people their jobs.

International Paper says this shutdown is the result of a slowdown in the economy. As consumer spending slows, there is less need for packaging used in shipping.

At similar plants elsewhere, people make kraft paper for other purposes, including paper grocery sacks, also using recycled raw materials for the most part just as the Albany mill does.

The production aspect is ignored when the public is urged, in one of the periodic drives to get green and greener, to quit asking for grocery sacks and bring their own. Instead, keeping in mind that paper sacks are recycled many times, people ought to ask for them whenever they shop.

Oregon has a law saying shoppers must be asked if they want a paper or a plastic sack. Many stores get around the law by asking, "Is plastic OK?" Others get around it with a sign saying they will issue plastic bags unless you ask for a paper one.

Plastic bags, of course, also are made by production employees somewhere, and doing away with them would cost jobs as well. But in the Northwest, where kraft and other paper is made from sawmill residue as well as recycled material, it's the paper sack and container board that provide for more employment.

Environmentalists may complain about all the packaging used in our way of life. But once you know about the jobs involved, and the impressive recycling record and awe-inspiring production machinery, you would be more likely to appreciate both cardboard containers - so handy for storage as well as sending packages - and the good old paper sack. (hh)