The plastic industry is totally pwning the paper industry with these statistics. You will notice that my blog is not called PaperMore. Reusable bags can’t be compared to plastic in the same way because the number of plastic bags that a reusable bag replaces is variable. We have been devotedly using cloth bags for a couple of years. We have lost a few in a taxi (I assume they continued to be used). One of our early ones recently broke. The 8-10 bags that we have used and are still using have undoubtedly had a lower cost to the environment than the hundreds or even thousands of plastic bags that we could have used instead.
In defense of paper…
- Paper is compostable
- Paper is recyclable
- Paper is biodegradable
- Paper can be reused
- Paper can be used to light a fire in a wood stove
- The Unknown Comic died of suffocation when he tried to perform with a plastic bag over his head (ok, I made that up, he’s alive and writing a book)
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March 8th, 2009 at 12:27 am
But they are still throwing up smokescreens with their myths. While the filmy plastic bags are recyclable, the fact is that only about 4% of them get recycled in the US.
You are right, reusable bags cannot be compared in the same way that they present their statistics. Unless, of course you took the time to run life cycle analyses on every type of reusable bag imaginable.
The comparison they will never touch with a ten foot pole is the simple fact that every time a person reuses any type of bag, that’s one less plastic bag you are asking them to manufacture. Imagine if everyone in the US rummaged through their closets and attics for all of the free tote bags they ever got, and used those for grocery shopping. You can’t compare the energy cost and waste ramifications of their filmy bags to something that has ALREADY been made.
March 8th, 2009 at 9:22 am
thbam bam bam ! this is crazy!!
March 8th, 2009 at 11:46 am
Great points Johnny. I don’t have any free totes in my closets. They are in a basket by the front door
March 9th, 2009 at 7:08 pm
Plastic recyling in the US is 8%. Paper is not biodegradable. Check with Dr. william Rathje,University of Arizona, who studied landfills. He found papers 40 years old. How did he know that? They were still readable!!! It takes 15-20 yrs to grow one tree that you can get 700 grocery bags from. In 1999, 14 million trees were felled to make 10 billion grocery bags. It takes 20-40% less energy to make a plastic bag.Plastic releases 92% less emissions into the atmosphere. In delivery, one truck can hold 1 million plastic bags, where it would take 6 trucks to deliver the same amount of paper bags. Think of the pollution these trucks use.Landfills have 37% paper and paperboard content, where there is only 12% made up of plastic.Plastic is a better option. I hate to think of a tree being killed so I can get a paper bag.
March 10th, 2009 at 9:55 pm
Leslie,
Knowing all that you know then, are you of the belief that there are only two options, as the plastic industry would have you think? The point is that there are THREE options, the friendliest of which is not mentioned in the plastic vs. paper “myths”.
Paper is biodegradable. The reason that 40 year old newspapers are found intact is because most of the landfills in the US are non-composting.