Paper or Plastic?

In a world where going green has become so popular, people are looking for more and more ways to reduce their carbon footprint and greenhouse emissions. One way to live greener easily, and with little cost, is to consider your choice of bag when shopping at your local market. For the past thirty years, we have had the choice of paper or plastic, but with little or no information about how our choice affects the environment. Each type has its advantages and disadvantages, giving consumers different things to consider.

Plastic bags are made from petroleum, with the United States alone consuming the equivalent of 12 million barrels of oil annually in bag production. With that much oil 234 million gallons of gasoline, 110 million gallons of diesel, 49.2 million gallons of jet fuel, and 136.8 million gallons of various other oil products could be made. Plastic bags are also not biodegradable, taking hundreds to thousands of years for the sun to break them down completely. Until then, they pollute the planet. When it comes to recycling, only one percent of plastic bags are sent to a recycling center. The rest end up in landfills or as litter. Compare this to the 20 percent of all paper bags that are recycled and the much faster biodegrading time of about a month depending on the disposal conditions.

Paper bags do have their own set of problems. It takes 14 million trees to make all the paper bags used in the United States every year, and on top of that they generate 50% more air pollution and 94% more water pollution and require up to four times the energy to manufacture. When it comes to recycling, plastic is much less popular but much more efficient. It takes 91 percent less energy to recycle a pound of plastic than it takes to recycle a pound of paper. They are also much more compact and can be shipped more easily. 2,000 plastic bags weigh 30 pounds, 2,000 paper bags weigh 280 pounds. So while paper bags require much more energy and pollute more, they don't stick around for centuries to come and are recycled more.

The one method on which everyone agrees is most environmentally friendly way to shop is with a reusable bag. While reusing old plastic and paper bags is good, in the end they are being thrown away or recycled. Most people don't even need to go out and buy a bag; they already have a backpack, tote bag, duffel bag or something of the sort lying around somewhere. The Environmental Protection Agency has verified that it only takes 11 uses of a reusable bag to make a lower environmental impact than disposable bags. In many countries around the world governments are stepping in to help encourage people to use their own bag. By putting a small bag tax, between 5 and 50 cents per bag, nation's have seen their bag consumption plummet. Some states and cities in the United States have also experimented with charging for plastic bags. The Swedish company, Ikea , saw a 95% drop in bag use when they imposed a 5 pence fee for their stores in the United Kingdom and hopes to see a similar drop by instituting it here.

The biggest challenge to overcome before we see any success in reducing the use of disposable bags is the strong throw-away mentality of American consumers. By combining many small changes in our life such as these, we can avoid having to make a few drastic ones that can help save the environment and conserve our natural resources.