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What's Better for the Environment, Paper Bags or Reusable Plastic Bags?

posted by martyb on Thursday January 19 2017, @05:06AM   
from the tree-huggers-may-be-surprised dept.

-- OriginalOwner_ writes:

AlterNet reports

It's a basic question faced by millions of shoppers every day: paper or plastic? Making the best choice for the environment, however, is less simple.

Last November, Californians approved Proposition 67, which upheld a 2014 ban on the issuing of single-use plastic bags in grocery and drug stores. As a result, shops were able to continue charging customers around a dime for reusable plastic or paper bags. The ban seems effective because it should lead to a reduction in plastic waste. More importantly, the extra charge aims to incentivize people to bring their own reusable bags to the store. But let's face it, many shoppers still forget, which brings us back to that darn choice we often have to make at the checkout line.

So, which option is better?

[...]The U.K. Environment Agency, a governmental research group, conducted a similar inquiry around the same time period. Its report[PDF] was a life cycle assessment comparing the environmental impacts of a variety of grocery bags. From extensive research, some of the study's key findings concluded that:

• Single-use plastic bags outperformed all alternatives, even reusable ones, on environmental performance.
• Plastic bags have a much lower global warming potential.
• The environmental impact of all types of bag is dominated by the resource use and production stages. Transport, secondary packaging, and end-of-life management generally have minimal influence on their performance.
• Whatever type of bag is used, the key to reducing the impacts is to reuse it as many times as possible.

The ecological break-even point with a cloth grocery bag comes on its 131st use.

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Original Submission

• I'll never run out of bags. I'll never run out of bags. (Score: 3, Insightful) by Some call me Tim on Thursday January 19 2017, @05:31AM

  by Some call me Tim (5819) on Thursday January 19 2017, @05:31AM (#455903)

  I have a metric ass load of saved bags, you could say I have a virtual library of Congress of the damn things. I just stuff a few in my pocket every time I go to the store and more often than not, I end up giving one or two to someone in line at the checkout. Whoever has to clean out my house when I die is going to thank me or curse me for the cabinet full of the damn things. ;-)

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• Re:I'll never run out of bags. (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 19 2017, @05:39AM

  by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 19 2017, @05:39AM (#455906)

  The store I goto has a recycle bin of them in front. I drop off a bunch every few months.

  Parent

• Re:I'll never run out of bags. (Score: 2) by TheRaven on Thursday January 19 2017, @05:20PM

  by TheRaven (270) on Thursday January 19 2017, @05:20PM (#456107) Journal

  Make sure that you store them in the dark, because UV breaks down the plastic that they're made of. They're also biodegradable, so in an aerobic environment bacteria will break them down (unfortunately, neither mechanism works when they're buried in landfill). Ocado gives 5p for any plastic bags (including ones from other shops) when they deliver the shopping, so we just keep a few around now and gave back all of the ones we'd collected for recycling. We use reuseable cloth or canvas bags, including some that we've had for many years, for most shopping. It's a little bit more effort to remember to take them with you when you go shopping, but the bag never splits on the walk home...

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  Parent