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Paper Bag

elena | Jan 12, 2010 |

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Plastic Bag vs Paper Bag Debate

In the last few years, retail shopping has resulted in the production of billions of plastic and paper bags being produced. This is off course was in keeping with demand as more people needed a way to bag their shopping items. The standard way of bagging purchases at the many retail stores that have proliferated over the years was plastic and/or paper bags depending on what one preferred at checkout. While these have been the one and only way most people carry their purchases out of a grocery or retail store, these bring with them various environmental and safety hazards as we shall see.

We have mentioned that because of the excessive demand on plastic bags, billions are produced each year to cater to the increasing demand. With people taking millions of this home each day, the question of how they are adequately disposed of after use arises. What do people do with these bags after unloading their purchases? It is estimated that less than 2% of the total plastic bags produced in the US are disposed of properly meaning the vast majority end up in various garbage dumps, landfills, and other open spaces. Plastic can be carried far by the weather elements and some can make its way to farm lands where it causes havoc to livestock (animals cannot digest plastic and thousands are killed each year after eating plastic bags). Other plastic elements break down and become toxins which enter the water system and harm fish.

Unlike other bags, plastic bags do not decay and decompose when left to their own devices. They instead become chemically-altered and make their way into the ecosystem. Fish are the first ones to bear the brunt and then humans and other fish who eat fish that has been contaminated. This causes fish to die in the millions each year.

Upon realizing the above, many nations are now enacting laws to regulate plastic bag use. In the US, where plastic bag usage has reached endemic levels, new technology has begun to produce reusable plastic bags. While there is still some ways to go before total elimination is achieved, it is nevertheless a step in the right direction in that there will now be less plastic to dispose of. Many countries are also looking into ways to follow suit and also to enact laws that allow for elimination of plastic. Plastic has also been attributed to hundreds of asphyxiation deaths each year especially to children who play with plastic bags and suffocate. This has been a major concern and a reason why the issue of proper disposal of plastic bags has to be tackled with renewed vigor. Since plastic is oil-based, controlling its production and use is also a matter that can save world energy.

It is quite possible for weather elements to carry toxins derived from plastic to far reaches of the earth. This has been cause for alarm for many ecologists and environmentalists who have found that these chemicals go on to harm wildlife, farm animals, forest creatures and even vegetation far from the area where the plastics were actually dumped.

This information is now coming to a head and many scientists, politicians, ecologists and environmentalists have ganged together to make laws that curb improper disposal of plastic pager bags. Large nations that spew out waste have been the culprits for a long time. This because they produce more and consume more but newer legislation is now in progress to ensure that improper dumping of plastic paper bags is halted.

Paper bag is the other alternative to plastic bags. They have been popular and have been used side by side with plastic for a long time. The reason why paper bags are used is because they are cheaper to produce and also to dispose and have been said to have a less adverse effect on the environment than plastic. But this is not entirely true. Paper bags also have their own adverse effects. They contribute to adverse deforestation in places like the Amazon and in the process contribute to global warming.

Diminishing forests also destroy the soil quality rendering more and more land arid and also contributing to declining food production in the countries where they are. Paper also does clog the sewers and release toxins into the water when it breaks down. Hundreds of millions of trees disappear each year in countries like the United States just to satisfy the craving for brown paper bags in supermarkets.

To curb these maladies, many countries are using technology that recycles paper and plastic. While this has not solved the problem entirely, it has nevertheless lessened the sheer amount of plastic or paper toxins that make their way to streams, lakes, forests and rivers.

Then there are reusable plastic bags which are now in use in some developed nations. These are going a long way in ensuring the decline of toxins in the ecosystem.