If thinking about how you are planning on carrying your brand new purchase home, please take the time to think whether your plastic or Paper Bags will find their way to a landfill. Once at that landfill, will the plastic and Paper Sacks be there for a small or large amount of time? Perhaps they will be there indefinitely. It would be magnificent if these things were consideredbefore you answer that vital question, “paper or plastic?”
In today’s world we need to be cognizant that every action we take can (and often does) have a tremendous impact on the earth. When we visita restaurant for Carryout food, the amount of rubbish left over is sobering. Take into account the Styrofoam container the food comes in as well as the plastic utensils, paper napkins, cups, straws and bag. All of these items must go somewhere and often it is into the trash, on its way to a landfill far from your home. After that we rarely ponder its effect.
The bags, sacks and containers have a lasting consequence on the earth. Well over a billion single-use plastic bags are given out each day. There are repercussions for the fleeting convenience of unlimited, free, single-use plastic bags. To observe the real costs, we must look at the multiple impacts of a bag’s life. In a landfill, plastic bags take up to 1,000 years to degrade. As litter on our roads they breakdown into tiny bits, contaminating our soil and water. When plastic bags breakdown, small plastic particles can create threats to sea life and contaminate the food supply for both humans and animals. Collection, hauling and disposal of plastic bag waste create an added ecological impact. Almost 8 billion pounds of plastic bags, wraps and sacks enter the waste stream every year in just America, placing an unwanted burden on our diminishing landfill room. Plastic bags cause air pollution if incinerated.
Paper bags are now thought to be a better choice. Their negative consequence on our globe is far less. While it takes 90%less energy to recycle a pound of plastic than it takes to recycle a pound of paper, recycling rates of paper bags are greater than that of plastic bags. Usually the paper bags were made of recycled paper to spin]begin|start[/spin] with. Paper sacks in today’s landfills do not break down at a substantially faster rate than plastic does. In reality nothing fully degrades in modern landfills bedue to the absence of water, light, and oxygen. A paper sack consumes more space than a conventional plastic bag, but since paper is recycled at an elevated rate, saving space in landfills is not much of a concern.
What should we do then when taking our shopping home? First, try to choose paper over plastic if possible. Perhaps you could use and reuse both your paper and plastic bags many, many times. Several stores will give you a slight discount for doing so. After all you are saving them money to. Most significantly however you should take along a cloth bag with you everywhere. This way you will be prepared if asked “paper or plastic?” You can answer “neither, I brought my own bag, thank you.” And the earth shall thank you in return.
