Paper or Plastic, or Biodegradable, or Canvas, or…

Have you ever consider the amount of plastic bags you have used over the course of your consumer career? Have you ever considered where those bags go when you are done with them? The average lifespan for a plastic bag is 12 minutes before being tossed away to spend the rest of it’s life in a landfill with the other 2.8 million tons of plastic waste the UK alone produces annually. With this in mind, is there a more environmentally conscious alternative or solution?

The most common and available alternative to plastic bags is paper bags. Plastic bags require 40-70% less energy to manufacture than paper bags, it takes 91% less energy to recycle a pound of plastic than required to recycle a pound of paper, and plastic bags generate 80% less waste than paper bags. Biodegradable bags are gaining popularity but are they a viable option? Biodegradable bags break down when exposed to sunlight, oxygen, soil, moisture, and microbes, however they are still petroleum-based. Moreover, the chemicals used to make these bags eventually show up in the food chain and ultimately our bodies.

Reusable bags are also in the option spectrum. Canvas totes were the first reusable shopping bag to ever gain any attention but because they are typically made from cotton, but they use a significant amount of water in their production. Polyester bags are about the same size as your average plastic bag and each one creates just 89 grams of greenhouse gas emissions – or the same as about seven plastic bags. Polypropylene bags are comparable to brown paper bags and producing one creates 138 grams of greenhouse gas emissions – or the same as about eleven plastic bags.

There is no silver bullet to eliminate plastic bag usage but rather a commingling of existing examples that can show us how we can reduce the impact of wasteful consumption of plastic bags. For instance, a 90% reduction in the use of plastic bags was achieved by the South African government in 2002 when they required manufacturers to make plastic bags more durable and expensive, thus discouraging their use and waste. At the same time, supermarkets all over the world are implementing small charges for using plastic or offering refunds for returning bags. Still, the most environmentally conscious thing you can do is utilize reusable bags, reuse plastic bags, and really think twice about whether or not you need a plastic bag at all.