The discussion about “paper vs plastic bags” will keep continuing, especially since the increasing use of plastic is already massive and worrying. To decrease plastic waste, the use of paper bags has begun to be encouraged in many countries. They have many advantages. Here are some reasons to use them.
Paper bags are biodegradable. It means paper bags can be decomposed in soil with the help of bacteria. It’s different from plastic bags that can take a thousand years to decompose.
Paper bags are one hundred percent recyclable because they don’t contain toxic and poisonous gas that plastic bags emit during recycling. They are reusable, and when they’re reused more than three times, the bags have significantly less ecosystem impact than plastic bags. Using paper bags and leaving plastic bags means saving nature from pollution. It also means saving sea animals like whale and sea turtle from eating plastic waste that could kill them.
There are reasons why classy brands choose to use a paper bag instead of a plastic bag as their packaging. First of all, the bag is designed as good as possible and given out as merchandise with their brand logo stamped on it. Thus, it gives the impression of exclusivity and luxury, while also advertises the brand when the bag is reused.
Customization is a big part of the appeal, and customizing your paper bags are not a difficult task. You can print it, draw in it, and so on. That way, paper bags can look fashionable compared to the boring, plastic bag that you can’t customize.
Not only customizing pre-existed paper bags, but you can also make the bag itself from scratch. Making a paper bag is easy, unlike a plastic bag. You might do not even need to spend a penny to make one. Use yesterday’s newspapers in home, gift wrapper, unused textbooks, any many more. Even if it required you to buy something, it wouldn’t be expensive. Use a scissor and glue and make your own creative paper bags.
Both paper bags and plastic bags have the same basic design, but paper bags are sturdy. They provide a wider space for more items in the bag because of their rectangle structure. The sturdiness also allows them to be put without being worried that the content would be dropped.
Paper bags are also made of durable paper, which can carry more weight than a thin single-use plastic bag. You can iron them to make the paper bags look good again before reusing them. Meanwhile used plastic bags are usually badly wrinkled, and you can’t do anything about it.
Recycling paper bags is not nearly time-consuming as recycling plastic bags. Plastic bags are hard to recycle, while the paper is easy. While paper bags might only take days to decompose right in your backyard, plastic bags might take 400 to 1000 years to decompose. While collecting compost in a paper bag, you can throw in all the compost and the paper bag in the soil. You can’t do the same thing to the plastic bag because it will only pollute the soil.
Above points are the advantages of using paper vs plastic bags. Plastic bags are a hazard to the ecosystem, and more people put a stop of their use. Paper bags are not only eco-friendly, but they give people a fashionable, durable, and creative alternative to a single-use plastic bag.
Americans go through hundreds of billions of plastic bags each year. In an effort to curb the number of bags being used once and then thrown away, cities around the world have instituted bans or taxes on plastic bags. But are paper or reusable bags much better for the environment? Science shows that there is not a clear answer.
Plastic Bags
A major advantage of plastic bags is that, when compared to other types of shopping bags, producing them carries the lowest environmental toll. The thin, plastic grocery store bags are most commonly made from high-density polyethylene (HDPE). Although production of these bags does use resources like petroleum, it results in less carbon emissions, waste, and harmful byproducts than cotton or paper bag production. Plastic bags are also relatively sturdy and reusable. Many of the studies about different bagging options that show plastic bags production demands less resources assume plastic bags are used at least twice—once coming home and once as a trash bag—and factor this into the calculations about which bags are more sustainable.
Plastic bags are recyclable, though few people recycle them. Recycling plastic bags is a difficult task; they fly away in the recycling plant and get stuck in machinery. Because of this, many cities do not offer curbside recycling for plastic bags. Instead, large-scale retailers offer bag recycling services. However these services are dependent on the consumer bringing the plastic bags back to the store.
Bags that are not recycled end up becoming litter, because they do not biodegrade. In addition to filling up landfills and becoming eyesores, plastic bags that become litter endanger many facets of the environment, including marine life and the food chain. This is because plastic bags, like all plastic materials, eventually break up into microscopic pieces, which scientists refer to as microplastics. Microplastics have been found nearly everywhere: in marine animals, farmland soil, and urban air.
Though scientists have only just begun studying the consequences of microplastic proliferation, and we do not yet know their effect on animals, humans, and the environment, scientists are concerned about how this level of plastic pollution could change our planet. The studies that found plastic bags to be less harmful to the environment than paper and reusable bags did not take effects of litter into account and instead assumed that the plastic bags would be recycled or used as trash bags.
Paper Bags
Paper bags have some advantages over plastic bags when it comes to sustainability. They are easier to recycle, and, because they are biodegradable, they can be used for purposes like composting. However, paper is very resource-heavy to produce: Manufacturing a paper bag takes about four times as much energy as it takes to produce a plastic bag, plus the chemicals and fertilizers used in producing paper bags create additional harm to the environment.
Studies have shown that, for a paper bag to neutralize its environmental impact compared to plastic, it would have to be used anywhere from three to 43 times. Since paper bags are the least durable of all the bagging options, it is unlikely that a person would get enough use out of any one bag to even out the environmental impact.
Still, the fact that paper is recyclable helps lessen its impact. In 2018, 68.1 percent of paper consumed in the United States was recovered for recycling, a percentage that has been rising in the last decade. However, because paper fibers become shorter and weaker each time the recycling process takes place, there is a limit to how many times paper can be recycled.
Reusable Bags
Reusable bags are made from many different materials, and the environmental impact of producing those materials varies widely. One study from the United Kingdom (U.K.) found that, regarding bag production, cotton bags have to be reused 131 times before they reduce their impact on climate change to the same extent as plastic bags. To have a comparable environmental footprint (which encompasses climate change as well as other environmental effects) to plastic bags, a cotton bag potentially has to be used thousands of times. Materials other than cotton, however, perform much better in sustainability metrics. Nonwoven polypropylene (PP) is another popular option. Made from a more durable kind of plastic, these bags need to be reused around eleven times to break even with the impact of conventional plastic.
In addition to varying widely in their eco-friendliness, there is the chance that reusable bags go unused, because consumers have to remember to bring the bags with them to the store. The biggest positive of reusable bags is that their use cuts down on the amount of litter on land and in the ocean. Studies have found that bans on plastic bags in cities in the United States and Europe have decreased the amount of plastic litter in nearby waters.
Things to Consider
Because reusable and paper bags have a huge environmental cost upfront, and plastic bags create greater negative effects after being used, it is hard to determine which type of bag is truly the most sustainable. Regardless of whether the bag is plastic, paper, or another material, the most sustainable choice is the bag you already have. In every study and for every type of bag, it was clear that reusing the bag as many times as you can reduces its impact on the environment. Overall, making the effort to reuse any bag that comes into your possession, and disposing of the bag responsibly, is key.