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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.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by tftp on Thursday January 19 2017, @05:52AM
No matter what is in favor today, the other choice is always better. There are tons of people who stand to gain from the switch, and very few who benefit from keeping it the same.
Personally, I rarely (virtually never) use paper bags. Paper is very ecologically unfriendly to manufacture - the deaded trees, the chemicals, the water that the paper mills take clean and return not quite so... paper is OK for writing, but it is not very good as a construction material, and doubly so as a material for reusables. Plastic in that regard is super-strong, and at the same time nearly weightless. I can reuse a common thin plastic bag maybe 20-30 times. I have a few stored away for trash, and I do use them for that purpose. When I go to the store I have a bag with me (when walking) or a cart (if I have a car outside.)
Is the ban good? If people buy paper bags, then it is clearly bad from my POV, as I dislike flimsy, single-use paper bags. It would be good only if everyone carries reusable bags - but those who "forget" (??? Do they forget the shoes and the shirts too?) won't be affected - they will simply pay ten cents for an item that costs 1 cent in retail (but China will sell for less if you buy a whole pallet, which stores do.) Those who do not forget often had their own bags anyway, unless they *needed* plastic bags for trash.
Overall, it is much worse that we have the government that makes it illegal for a business to give a free item to their customer. Where will those arbitrary prohibitions end - if they ever will?
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 19 2017, @06:52AM
What I like about paper bags is that they stand up nicely when you set them down.
(My first job was as a supermarket bag boy.)
Those damned plastic things just flop over|open.
Now, when paper gets wet, it does quickly become useless.
For years, I've taken my own backpack/cardboard box when shopping.
I do grab some plastic bags at the checkout to put my trash in.
For that reason, this new law irritates me.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday January 19 2017, @08:14AM
No matter what is in favor today, the other choice is always better. There are tons of people who stand to gain from the switch, and very few who benefit from keeping it the same.
Tell that to the people who manufacture and sell "the same."
(Score: 1) by tftp on Thursday January 19 2017, @08:21AM
Tell that to the people who manufacture and sell "the same."
They exist? Who are they? Perhaps, makers of most basic staples in the food industry? Beyond that everything seems to be in flux. There is very little stability in our world. Perhaps in 1500's an apprentice could learn the trade, make the masterpiece and settle down, unchanging, until the end of his days. But today? There isn't enough time in the day to read all the important news in my area of expertise.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday January 19 2017, @08:31AM
My lawyer has advised me to say that it's definitely NOT ExxonMobil.
Thank you and god bless.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 19 2017, @02:09PM
I ran a 8 year experiment back in the 1580s when one of the blacksmiths was singing the praises of their artisan plastic bags. Tacked a couple to the sunny side of a shed, and staked a couple more on the ground. Ten years later my wife took them down and threw them in the recycle when we moved out of that house.
Statute of limitations on false advertising had already expired.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 19 2017, @08:57PM
(??? Do they forget the shoes and the shirts too?)
Probably not. However, unlike reusable bags:
1) People go everywhere with shirts and shoes, not just when they go to the store. It's easier to form a habit at 100% than "whenever you are doing X and only doing X."
2) It is very obvious when you are missing your shirt ("why am I so cold?") and shoes ("the ground is scratching today"). You "use" them all the time, so when you don't have them to use it's obvious. You only use the reusable bags when you are trying to pack things up at the store. In other words, when it is too late.
3) People have worn shirts and shoes their whole lives (probably before they can even remember). They don't carry bags around their whole lives. How many times have you or a female family member forgotten their purse? How many times have you or a family member (especially an older one who didn't grow up with one) forgotten a mobile phone?