People use many billions of plastic bags every year. Cities round the world have imposed bans or taxes on plastic bags in an effort to reduce the number of single-use bags being thrown away. But are paper and reusable bags better for the environment? Science suggests there's no clear answer.

Plastic bags

A major advantage of plastic bags over other types of shopping bags is that their production causes minimal damage to the environment. Thin plastic bags in grocery stores are usually made from high-density polyethylene (HDPE). While producing these bags does require the utilization of resources such as oil, it produces less carbon emissions, waste and harmful byproducts than cotton or paper bags. Plastic bags also are relatively strong and reusable. Many studies of various bagging options have shown that plastic bag production requires fewer resources, assuming the bag is employed at least twice - once for home and once as a garbage bag - and taking this into account which bag is more sustainable.

Plastic bags are recyclable, although few people recycle them. Recycling plastic bags may be a daunting task; They flew into the recycling plant and got stuck in the machine. due to this, many cities don't offer curbside plastic bag recycling. Instead, large retailers offer bag recycling. However, these services depend on consumers bringing plastic bags back to the store.

Plastic bags that aren't recycled end up as garbage because they are not biodegradable. additionally to landfills and being an eyesore, plastic bags becoming ashcan harm many aspects of the environment, including Marine life and therefore the food chain. That's because plastic bags, like all plastic materials, eventually break down into tiny pieces, which scientists call microplastics. Microplastics are found almost everywhere: in Marine animals, farmland soil and concrete air.

Although scientists are just starting to study the consequences of the proliferation of microplastics, and that we don't yet know their impact on animals, humans, and therefore the environment, scientists are concerned about how this level of plastic pollution could change our planet. Studies that found plastic bags to be less harmful to the environment than paper and reusable bags didn't take the impact of litter into account, assuming instead that the luggage would be recycled or used as garbage bags.

Paper bags

Paper bags have some advantages over plastic bags in terms of sustainability. they're easier to recycle, and, because they're biodegradable, they will be used for purposes such as composting. However, the resources to supply paper are very abundant: it takes about four times as much energy to produce a paper bag as it does to produce a plastic bag, and therefore the chemicals and fertilizers used to produce paper bags pose additional environmental hazards.

Studies have shown that for a sack to offset its environmental impact compared to plastic, it might have to be used anywhere from three to 43 times. Since paper bags are the smallest amount durable of all bagging options, it's impossible for a person to fully utilize any one bag to offset the environmental impact.

Still, the very fact that paper is recyclable helps mitigate its impact. In 2018, 68.1 percent of the paper consumed within the United States was recycled, a percentage that has been rising over the past decade. However, there's a limit to how many times paper can be recycled, because the paper fibers become shorter and weaker with each recycling process.

Something to think about

Because reusable plastic and paper bags have huge upfront environmental costs, and plastic bags have even greater negative impacts after use, it's hard to work out which bags are truly the most sustainable. Whether the bag is plastic, paper, or the other material, the foremost sustainable option is the bag you already have. In every study, for every type of plastic bag, it had been clearly shown that reusing a plastic bag as much as possible could reduce its environmental impact. Last, making an attempt to reuse any bags you have, and removing the bags responsibly, is the key.