Paper or plastic? Plastic.
The question is asked millions of times every day: "Paper or plastic?" Do you want your groceries in a paper bag or a plastic bag? Well, if the impact on the environment was your concern, then the answer is simple: if you have to pick one of these, pick plastic. That's because, all in all, using plastic bags impacts the environment much less than using paper ones.
How do we know that? We have calculated the Composite Environment Impact Index of both, tracing every step of production, use, and disposal of the bags, and found out that paper uses more resources, and pollutes more, than plastic. Here are the calculations, click on the item name to trace the environmental impact calculations:
The production of paper consumes much more resources, and produces much more waste than plastic, even if the recycling is taken into account.
Of course, most likely a reusable cotton bag will be better than either, but we need to calculate it's CEII to be sure.
| Grocery bag, plastic Impact: 6.46 | Grocery bag, paper Impact: 77.69 |
Comments
14 comments postedHello All,
If anyone think paper is a substitute of plastic then it is a mistake.
Its ecological foot print is more.
Plastic is very harmful for sure.
But paper has more impact.
AND product like paper cup are not biodegradable. It have all the demarits which lies with plastic cup. Other than some more. Like cutting of trees. In US alone in 2009 16 millions trees has been chopped because of paper cup.
The people who think it can be recycled first they should know recycling has its limit. AND hardly 5-10% is recycled. In that way plastic/polythine bags can be also used for manufacturing of roads.
But truth is currently we do not have proper system to enforce its seggrigation and processing.
If a proper system is there harm with plastic can be reduced. But cost of trees because of paper can not be recovered.
Mail me on prashant.gbpec1@gmail.com for details and then we can discuss it properly
WHY DOES THIS EVEN REQUIRE A DEBATE!?!?!?!?!? THE ANSWER IS SIMPLE!!! JUST USE REUSABLE CLOTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well, if it is a cotton bag, the pesticides used for the monoculture cotton cultivation kills all the "environmental friendliness" of such bags. Of course, if you use reusable plastic bags, you just destroy environment by contributing to oil spills etc.The bottom line is that unless you rigorously calculate the impact, and compare the reusable cloth bags with disposable ones, all the screaming in the world will not help...
i think plastic is better. it's just that were to undisciplined in the manner we dispose of it.
Paper anytime. Plastic has become a menace in Nairobi, Kenya and has greatly contributed to the increase of mosquito breeding grounds. Malaria has increased with the increase of plastic use and this is just one of the negative impacts here.
as everyone said its right that we should stop plastic and start using jute,paper and stop receiving plastic bags from shops.we should go against poly bags and make our earth a safer place.LET'S GO!
Did you even read the post you are commenting on? PAPER is BAD. Plastic is good. Ugh!
PLASTICBAGs are nonbiodegradeable and harm ENVIRONMENT
whereas paper /cloth/jute /coir BAGS are BIODEGRADEABLE
and do not harm ENVIRONMENT at all at any cost .
Paper can be recycled to make bags from newspaper /used
print matter etc , thus no addl damage is caused to environment
if paper bags are ALLOWED in market to carry articles in
lieu of PLASTICBAGS ............STOP PLASTICBAGS
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, COMMANDER SANJAY BHATT
Thanks for information.
it is true that you can down cycle paper bag. But it is also true that even when you recycle paper bags will still cost you alot more energy than creating a new plastic bag. therefore, plastic bag is more sustainable than paper.
but it is not true plastic bags are nonbiodegradeable, unfortuanatelly there isn't anything nonbiodegradeable.
and yes paper do harm environment. where do you think paper come from? trees. and how do you produce paper? you need huge amout of water and energy. where energy come from? power factory.
The whole point of this calculation is to show that paper grocery bags have about 10 times the negative impact on environment of the plastic bags.
Biodegradability is only a small portion of the bag's impact on the environment. There is also pollution generated by paper mills to consider, the water used, the rivers polluted by chemicals, the volatile organic compounds released into air. Did you had a look at the bottomlines for the paper and the plastic bags? You could see for yourself...
I am also sharing some authentic information with you,
Both paper and plastic bags consume large amounts of natural resources and the majority will eventually end up in the landfill. Both bags can be recycled to some extent and can be utilized around the house. I’ve read several studies comparing the two choices and none of them agree. Some feel plastic is the better overall choice, others paper. It’s really tough to say. Paper may consume more resources to produce, however, it is also more recyclable than plastic if you include the fact that paper can be composted and plastic bags cannot.
In my opinion, neither one is the winner. the best choice overall is to use a reusable bag. Many are made from recycled materials or natural materials such as our cotton string bags. Depending on the style, they’ll hold from 25-40lbs and last for years. Most can be machine washed and can be kept in the car, glove compartment, purse or backpack. If your local supermarket gives you 5 cents a bag every time you use it, and you buy groceries once a week, it’ll pay for itself in about a year and a half. Most bags last for 3-10 years and beyond (I still have my original string bags that are over 10 years old and going strong). Many countries around the globe and many cities here in the US are banning the use of plastic bags at checkout or are charging for them. This makes the adoption of reusable bags are an even smarter choice.
Taking all the above information into consideration, feel confident that you’re making an informed decision the next time you’re at the grocery store. The most important thing to remember is to utilize every possible use for both the plastic and paper bags you do end up with to lengthen their life and minimize the impact on both the environment and our natural resources.
Using poly bag is much better than paper it just became hazardous it's bcoz we don't dispose it properly. we should learn how to disposed plastic properly it has many usage it can be recycle again and produce new product out of it and it is much cheaper than paper then the paper mill can cause more pollution in our bodies of water and a paper is came from a paper tree we will have to use lot of land to plant a paper tree to satisfied the need of paper bag.
plastic is more durable and cheaper than paper we must dispose it properly and start recycle.
And the majority of the waste is came from the kitchen not from the plastic so don't blame everything to the plastic. it is all bcoz we don't segregate the waste properly...