Emery Myles Flores and Leif Garreth Palmitos Grade 8 Periwinkle

Plastic Bags or Paper Bags?

When you buy at your local supermarket, the cashier often asks whether you

prefer plastic or paper bags. Is it better for the environment to carry home your

groceries in a plastic bag or a paper bag? The answer to that question might be a little

more complicated than you think. According to the Canadian Plastics Industry

Association, every bag, paper, plastic, or cotton, has an impact on the planet ("All About

Bags," 2011). To understand the impacts of plastic and paper bags, we are going to

compare and differentiate all the processes that involve them such as production,

transportation, waste management, and decomposition.

Paper bags come from a renewable source, trees, while plastic bags come from

the waste products of oil and gas production, which is a non-renewable source

(Hopewell et al., 2009). Paper bags also take four times more energy to make than

plastic bags (Bell, 2011). The creation of paper bags needs more resources than plastic

bags. The production of both paper and plastic bags, use non-renewable energy,

consume water, release greenhouse gases, acidify rain, form ground-level ozone, and

produce solid waste. But paper bags use more non-renewable energy, use more water,

release more greenhouse gases, acidify the rain more, form more ozone, and produce

more solid waste. A 2018 life cycle assessment of grocery bags from the Danish

Environmental Protection Agency found that single-use plastic was less damaging than

paper bags when it comes to how their manufacturing affects climate change, ozone

depletion, water use, air pollution, and toxicity for humans (Bisinella et al., 2018).

Plastic bags are also lighter and have lesser volume than paper bags. The

average plastic bag weighs 5-6 grams, while the average Kraft paper bag weighs 55

grams. Why does it matter? It matters because more volume means more trucks
Emery Myles Flores and Leif Garreth Palmitos Grade 8 Periwinkle

needed to transport it. According to a 2011 Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) done by the UK

Environment Agency, it takes 7 vehicles to move 2 million paper bags while it only takes

1 to carry the same number of plastic bags. More trucks mean more greenhouse gases

produced (Hopewell, et al., 2009).

How about in terms of reusing and recycling? Plastic bags are more likely to be

reused than paper bags because they are waterproof and more durable. However, paper

is more recyclable than plastic. Plastic bags are recyclable, but they need special

processing equipment and they can't be mixed in with general recycling (Bratskeir,

2019). They also need to be segregated properly into designated collection centers.

Not all plastic bags get recycled though. According to Waste Management, one of

the largest garbage collection companies in the US, only 1 percent of all plastics are

turned in for recycling (Bratskeir, 2019). The rest of the plastics end up in the ocean,

landfills, and streets. Most plastics don't decompose very fast. It might even take them

centuries to decay. Paper, on the other hand, decomposes well. It only takes less than an

hour to dissolve in water and takes about 3 weeks to completely decompose in a landfill.

In conclusion, plastic bags and paper bags both have big environmental impacts.

However, they differ in the ways they impact the planet. Producing paper bags have

more of an impact on the environment than producing plastic bags. Plastic bags are

more reusable than paper bags, but paper bags are more likely to be recycled than

plastic bags. Paper bags also decompose faster than plastic bags. Overall, the best way to

help the planet is to reuse and recycle your bags, whether it's paper or plastic.
Emery Myles Flores and Leif Garreth Palmitos Grade 8 Periwinkle

References

All About Bags - Paper Versus Plastic Bag Studies. (2011). Allaboutbags.Ca; Canadian

Plastics Industry Association.

http://www.allaboutbags.ca/papervplasticstudies.html

Bell, K., & Cave, S. (2011). Comparison of Environmental Impact of Plastic, Paper and

Cloth Bag. Northern Ireland Assembly.

http://www.niassembly.gov.uk/globalassets/documents/raise/publications/20

11/environment/3611.pdf

Bisinella, V., Albizzati, P., Astrup, T., & Damgaard, A. (2018). Life Cycle Assessment of

grocery carrier bags. The Danish Environmental Protection Agency.

https://www2.mst.dk/Udgiv/publications/2018/02/978-87-93614-73-4.pdf

Bratskeir, K. (2019, May 14). Are Plastic, Paper Or Reusable Bags Better For The

Environment? HuffPost Canada; HuffPost Canada.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/paper-plastic-reusable-tote-bag-

environment_n_5cd4792ae4b0796a95d88b5f

Cadman, J., Evans, S., Holland, M., & Boyd, R. (2005). Environment Group Research Report

Proposed Plastic Bag Levy - Extended Impact Assessment. Scottish Executive.

https://www2.gov.scot/Resource/Doc/57346/0016899.pdf

Edgington, T. (2019, January 28). Plastic or paper: Which bag is greener? BBC News.

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-47027792

Hopewell, J., Dvorak, R., & Kosior, E. (2009). Plastics recycling: challenges and

opportunities. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological

Sciences, 364(1526), 2115–2126. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2008.0311

Plumer, B. (2019, March 29). Plastic Bags, or Paper? Here’s What to Consider When You

Hit the Grocery Store. The New York Times.

Emery Myles Flores and Leif Garreth Palmitos Grade 8 Periwinkle

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/29/climate/plastic-paper-shopping-

bags.html