Paper vs Plastic? Not in SF

November 20th, 2007 Alex

Starting this Tuesday, grocery stores in San Francisco can no longer use plastic bags. Retail businesses and smaller grocery stores will still be allowed to use the bags.  An estimated 180 million plastic bags are handed out in the city of San Francisco each year and many of it ends up as garbage and contamination. Oakland already has a similar ban that will go into effect next year and London and Paris will also have a similar ban. Stores are only allowed to use bags that are made of 40% recycled paper. Not too long ago, SF grocery stores were charging customers 5 cents for a plastic bag, but now they are going to give away free paper bags. Wouldn’t it make more sense to charge people 5 cents for a paper bag? I am not sure I get the idea behind this new ban.

So are paper bags really better for the environment as opposed to plastic bags?

It takes about four times as much energy to produce a paper bag as opposed to a plastic bag but paper bags can also hold the same volume as about 4 plastic bags. Most kraft paper is made by heating wood chips under pressure at high temperatures in a chemical solution and that solution can contribute to more air and water pollutants than plastic bags. Plastic bags are a by-product of oil refining. It also takes 91% less energy to recycle one pound of plastic than it takes to recycle a pound of paper. People however, tend to recycle about 10-15% of paper bags and 1-3% of plastic bags. Research also shows that paper in today’s landfills does not necessarily degrade at a faster rate than plastic because of the conditions in our current landfills. Paper bags can be recycled but it goes through a long process of using chemicals to break down the paper into pulp and then washed with water to remove any ink. Plastic bags can be recycled but they do not compost and if left in a landfill, it can stay there for thousands of years.

Obviously from the above, neither are really that great for the environment. Paper consumes more resources to produce, but it can be composted. Plastic however, takes less energy to produce and is more efficiently produced while also slightly easier to recycle. We all know that humans can be very incompetent and assuming everyone ends up throwing their bags away anyways, paper bags would be a better option since they will eventually decompose. Paper bags, however, take a lot more effort to produce and to recycle. The simple answer is to use reusable bags as the best solution. They are usually made from renewable resources and are more durable and you also get to save 3-5 cents per bag you bring to the grocery store.

There are plenty of debates of whether paper vs plastic is better for the environment. You can read more about how paper and plastic bags are made at Greenfeet.com, and at this site by Rachel Decker, as well as all over the Internet.

via SFGate and ReusableBags.com

Entry Filed under: Environment,Local