Paper or Plastic? No Thanks.

Mary Campbell, Urban Sustainability Agent, Pinellas County Extension

So what is the big deal with paper and plastic bags? These handy little totes have been around for as long as I can remember. When I was young, it was all about paper bags, which seems hard to imagine now. When did we get so sensitive to these throw away carriers and why can’t we continue to use them and then toss them away without a thought? Our diminishing natural resources, energy use, and waste production are the big three reasons why we must take another look at “paper or plastic?”

Fifty years ago, plastic bags -- starting first with the sandwich bag -- were seen in the United States as a more sanitary and environmentally friendly alternative to the deforesting paper bag. Estimates indicate that 100 billion plastic bags are used each year. Less than 1 – 3% of all plastic bags are recycled. Plastic bags start as crude oil, natural gas, or other petrochemical product. After being heated, shaped, and cooled, the plastic is ready to be flattened, sealed, punched, or printed on. Four out of five grocery bags in this country are plastic. Americans consume more than 10 billion paper bags each year in addition to all those plastic bags.

Let’s compare paper to plastic: The Winner is	Paper	Plastic	Neither
Natural Resources: Paper bags are made from trees and about 14 million trees are cut down each year to make paper bags. Plastic bags require 12 million barrels of oil to produce the 100 billion plastic bags used annually.	w	w	*
Energy: It takes 4 times as much energy to manufacture a paper bag as a plastic bag.	w	*	w
Recycling: It takes 98% less energy to recycle a pound of plastic than a pound of paper. When one ton of plastic bags is reused as something else other than plastic bags or recycled, the energy equivalent of 11 barrels of oil is saved.	w	*	w
Disposal: Plastic takes up less room in the landfill, but paper is biodegradable. Some reports indicate that paper bags do not biodegrade in landfills due to a lack of oxygen. An estimated 4 billion plastic bags end up as litter each year.	w	w	*
Toxins: The production of paper bags generates 70 % more air and 50 times more water pollutants than plastic bags.	w	*	w
Transport: Paper weighs more to transport.	w	*	w

Some manufacturers have introduced biodegradable or compostable plastic bags made from starches, polymers or poly-lactic acid, and no polyethylene—though these remain prohibitively expensive and account for less than 1 percent of the market. North America and Western Europe account for nearly 80 percent of plastic bags used. Bags are increasingly common in developing countries as well. Supermarkets around the world are voluntarily encouraging shoppers to bring their own bags. Some stores have begun to provide a small, per-bag refund or are charging extra for each plastic bag.
Try to go at least one week without accumulating any new plastic bags. If every shopper took just one less bag each month, this could eliminate the waste of hundreds of millions of bags each year. Make a commitment and Take the Reusable Bags Pledge.
Resource:
UF Paper or Plastic? - http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/AE209
Take the Reusable Bags Pledge: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=96tM1FHQ4xLIV0WumVrJzQ_3d_3d