Natural Environment Blog

Most of us are pretty well aware that plastic grocery bags are a big “no no” when it comes to helping the environment. And more people are realizing that paper bags are not much better.

So, if we shouldn’t use plastic bags or paper bags to do our shopping, what should we use?

That probably depends on who you talk to. I think you’ll be off to a good start if you can find a bag that’s:

• Eco friendly (environmentally friendly)
• Reusable
• Large

Although they are reusable, plastic bags aren’t eco friendly. They’re not very big either, which means you need to use more of them.

Paper bags are actually worse than plastic bags when it comes to the environment. Yes, they can be reused. And they are usually larger than plastic bags, but the damage they do to the environment makes them a much less attractive option.

Best Eco Friendly Bags?

Eco friendly grocery bags are those that have a minimum impact on the natural environment. This means in both the construction of the bag, as well as the disposal of the bag.

So, here are some of the things I would look for in an eco friendly bag:

• Requires less energy to be made than other bags
• Fully biodegradable (preferably can fully decompose within 6 months or less - inline with international standards such as EN 13432)
• Preferably made from a natural fiber (such as hemp, jute etc)
• Durable enough to be reused many times (say, more than 2 - 3 years under normal use)
• Large enough to not need too many of them

My post, Eco Friendly Grocery Bags, suggests some good product types to look for.

Larger Bags are Better

Another benefit of many eco-friendly grocery bags is that they are usually much larger than the typical plastic bag. Therefore, you can fit more groceries into them - you need less bags. Less bags means less energy to construct them and less bags to biodegrade.

Benefits of Reusable Grocery Bags

Even if you can’t find an eco friendly bag, you should get a grocery bag that you can reuse over and over again. If you can reuse your grocery bag for 2 or 3 years, then think of all the energy being saved. Every time you reuse your grocery bag, that’s one less bag that has to be produced.

For example, if you reuse your grocery bag over 3 years, and do your grocery shopping say, 4 times per week, that’s 624 less bags that have to be produced. If you use 2 grocery bags each time, that’s 1,248 less bags being produced. And that’s assuming the non-reusable bag is the same size. Most plastic grocery bags are much smaller than their eco-friendly/reusable counterparts (such as green bags, hemp bags, jute bags etc).

Summary

As with most things man-made, it’s hard finding anything that doesn’t have some level of impact on the environment. Bags made from natural fibers are usually best. And look for a bag you can reuse over and over again - for more than 2 or 3 years. That’s a lot of groceries that won’t require another plastic or paper bag.

My post about the environmental impact of plastic bags attracted a fair comment about the impact of paper bags on the environment. It seems that many people are using paper bags in the belief that they are better for the natural environment than plastic bags.

Unfortunately, that’s not necessarily true - paper bags are just as bad as plastic bags when it comes to the environment. In fact, some say paper bags are worse than plastic bags.

Some Facts and Figures

Here are some facts and figures according to reusable bags, regarding paper bags vs plastic bags:

• In 1999, 14 million trees were cut to produce the 10 billion paper grocery bags used by Americans that year alone
• Paper bags generate 70% more air and 50 times more water pollutants than plastic bags
• Paper bags use 4 times as much energy to construct compared to a plastic bag
• Paper bags use 84 times as much energy to recycle compared to a plastic bag
• Some studies have shown that paper bags generally don’t decompose any faster in landfills than plastic bags. This is apparently due to the lack of water, light and oxygen etc, in landfills.
• Paper bags use more space in landfills than plastic bags

So, according to these figures paper bags are much worse than plastic bags right? Sure does sound like it.

But then, you also need to take into account things such as size differences and usage patterns between the two bags. For example, paper grocery bags are usually larger than their plastic counter parts, so you need less of them. Also, there are different recycling rates between the two, which will affect the actual damage to the environment.

In 1990, Franklin and Associates completed a life-cycle energy analysis to consider all this and still concluded that the plastic bag was the better bag.

OK, so even though the plastic bag was the better bag, we all know how bad the plastic bag really is on the natural environment!

A Much Better Bag

So, the best thing to do is to avoid paper and plastic bags altogether. Instead, opt for a reusable bag made from a natural fiber.

Ideally, your reusable bag would be large enough to fit 5 times the groceries that a plastic bag would. Also, it would be so durable, that you can continue to reuse it for 2 - 3 years without needing to replace it.

Think of how many plastic or paper bags you’d be saving by doing that!