Paper or Plastic?

Imagine this. You are at a grocery store and the cashier asks you, “Paper or plastic bag?” You’ve seen all about climate change and the negatives of plastics online, so you raise your head and say with confidence, “Paper bag please!” You walk out of the grocery store, feeling like a champion. However, neither the paper nor the plastic bag was the right choice.

Let’s start from the beginning. Why should people not use plastic bags? Well, the main issue is that they are non-biodegradable, meaning that plastic bags take hundreds of years to decompose. From the time we are born to the time our great-grandchildren die, the plastic bags we once used will still exist in this world.

But paper bags solve the problem, right? Not necessarily. While paper bags certainly solve the issue of not being biodegradable, they present new issues. It takes lots of energy to turn a tree into a paper bag. It involves multiple steps: cutting trees, transporting them, extracting cellulose fibers, and then converting them into pulp. After that, the pulp is placed on a paper-making machine where it is flattened, dried out, cut into sheets, and then finally made into a bag. Besides the energy waste and carbon emission issues, paper bags cause deforestation.

So which one is the less of the two evils, paper or plastic bags? Neither. The solution is to bring your own bags! Although this may seem like a hassle at first, simply purchasing a few reusable bags and leaving them in your car each time you go shopping will protect the environment and save the earth.