Plastic and Paper

A common misconception is that paper bags are less harmful to our environment than plastic ones. The intensive logging that paper production demands requires lots of heavy machinery, therefore lots of fossil fuel, and causes great stress on the forests inhabitants while their habitat is being destroyed. Trees must dry for around 3 years before machines strip the bark, chip the trunk and heat the wood to tremendous temperatures and it is then soaked in sulphuric acid for 8 hours, washed and bleached, all requiring thousands of gallons of water. This process consumes a vast amount of energy, fossil fuel, water and creates a lot of chemical waste.

Most of us are aware of the downsides to the plastic carrier bag. These are made from ethylene, a petroleum derivative, which is a limited resource, and are flimsy and often only used once. When thrown into landfill they can take thousands of years to decompose and, as litter, pose a threat to wildlife.

The disposable shopping bag is a modern phenomenon, and the way forward is to buy bags once, and reuse them the way we used to.