Natural Environment Blog

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!

There’s no doubt about the environmental impact of plastic bags. They can have an enormous impact on the natural environment. It’s a big problem and it will only be solved by using a big solution.

Fortunately, governments around the world are starting to wake up to the plastic bag problem. Here’s what some are doing:

• Uganda has banned plastic bags.
• Bangladesh has banned plastic bags
• Taiwan has banned free plastic bags. Customers are charged for plastic bags if they want them.
• Kenya has introduced an extra tax on plastic bags. It also plans to ban ultra-thin bags early this year.
• Rwanda has banned plastics less than 100 microns thick and introduced public awareness campaigns
• In 2003 South Africa banned plastic bags thinner than 30 microns and introduced a plastics levy
• China has just announced a nationwide ban on stores distributing free plastic bags from June 1, 2008. After June 1, supermarkets will be required to charge for plastic bags they provide. Also, the government will ban the actual production of ultra-thin bags less than 0.025mm thick.
• Ireland now charges a levy of 15 cents per bag bought. This resulted in a reduction in plastic bag usage by up to 95 percent.
• The Australian government is currently considering either introducing a levy (similar to Ireland), or introducing a complete ban on plastic bags by the end of 2008
• In America, San Francisco has become the first city to ban plastic bags from large supermarkets and chemist’ shops
• Several towns and cities in the UK have banned plastic shopping bags (but it’s not yet a nationwide ban).

More and more people around the world are becoming aware of the environmental issues surrounding plastic bags. Considering their somewhat placid appearance, the impact of plastic bags on the environment can be devastating.

Here are some facts about the environmental impact of plastic bags:

• Plastic bags cause over 100,000 sea turtle and other marine animal deaths every year when animals mistaken them for food
• The manufacture of plastic bags add tonnes of carbon emissions into the air annually
• In the UK, banning plastic bags would be the equivalent of taking 18,000 cars off the roads each year
• Between 500 billion and 1 trillion plastic bags are used worldwide each year
• Approximately 60 - 100 million barrels of oil are required to make the world’s plastic bags each year
• Most plastic bags take over 400 years to biodegrade. Some figures indicate that plastic bags could take over 1000 years to break down. (I guess nobody will live long enough to find out!). This means not one plastic bag has ever naturally biodegraded.
• China uses around 3 billion plastic bags each day!
• In the UK, each person uses around 220 plastic bags each year
• Around 500,000 plastic bags are collected during Clean Up Australia Day each year. Clean Up Australia Day is a nationwide initiative to get as many members of the public to get out and pick up litter from their local areas. Unfortunately, each year in Australia approximately 50 million plastic bags end up as litter.

Fortunately, some governments around the world are taking the initiative to deal with the environmental impact of plastic bags by either banning plastic bags or discouraging their usage.

I was quite amazed to read the figures about how many plastic bags are used around the world each year. Actual numbers can only be estimates, but either way you look at it, we’re using a hell of a lot of plastic bags these days. One can only wonder about the damage this is doing to the natural environment.

Also, the figures vary depending on the source, but here are some figures I’ve seen from various sources.

A common estimate is that global consumption of plastic bags is over 500 billion plastic bags annually. Yes that’s 500,000,000,000 plastic bags used per year. In other words, that’s almost 1 million plastic bags used per minute.

As if that’s not enough, some environmental groups have estimated that up to 1 trillion plastic bags are used worldwide each year. Now, depending on your definition of the word “trillion”, that would be either 1,000,000,000,000 plastic bags or 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 plastic bags each year!

For arguments sake, let’s say it’s somewhere between 5 billion and a trillion plastic bags per year.

That’s a lot of plastic bags.