As plastic grocery bags have become the center of debate in environmental issues, more retailers are turning to alternatives: paper or biodegradable bags. However, a quick comparison indicates clear challenges in both. To reduce the environmental damage of excess plastic bag consumption, reusables continously prove to be the best solution.
Pros
Cons
Paper Bags
- Degradable in well-run landfill Hold more stuff
- Higher percentage of recycling (10% -15% versus 1%-3% for plastics)
- Consume forests
- Take 4 times as much energy as needed to produce
- Generate 70% more air pollution and 50 times more water pollution in production
- Take 90% more energy to recycle when recycling rate is low
- 7 times heavier than plastic to transport
- Take up more space in landfill
Biodegradable Bags
- Light and convenient like plastic bags
- Biodegradable in certain conditions
- Highly confusing definition of bio-plastics. Many bio-based products are not necessarily biodegradable
- Many biodegradable bags require special processing facilities. There are limited collection and processing platforms
- When mingled with traditional plastics, this causes contamination and makes the product unrecyclable
Reusable Bags
- Reduce energy usage, landfill, and pollution due to its reusable nature
- If the bags are not reused a sufficient number of times, more energies are wasted as most reusable bags are made from materials that require more energy to produce
- Difficult to remember as it requires personal habit changes
- Inconvenient since most products are bulky to carry
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