Much has been made recently by the media about the impact of plastic bags on the environment. Firstly let us say it could be considered rather hypocritical of newspapers like the Daily Mail to launch a crusade against the humble carrier bag, typically all 8 grams of it!
Newspapers are, by their nature, the ultimate 'one trip product' each one is tomorrows rubbish and about 25 times heavier and bulkier than a plastic bag. They give off Co2 when they degrade, use lots of energy in their production, need huge lorries to distribute them through the night - each and every night. And many of the colour Sunday supplements come wrapped in - guess what? A plastic bag!
The average Brit uses 134 carrier bags a year which would stand in a pile just about an inch high, and would weigh just over 1 Kg. Compare this to a years worth of copies of your typical newspaper! 134 carrier bags results in a carbon footprint of just 2.6 Kg of the typical 11 tonnes each one of us emits in a year. That equates to just one five thousandth of an individuals overall climate impact. Even Greenpeace have said there are more important things to worry about.
The average round trip to the supermarket is 12 miles which is the petrol equivalent of 210 plastic bags. So if you really care about the environment - Support your local retailer and SHOP LOCAL!!! And, until supermarkets reduce the energy used in their stores, minimise food miles, and treat farmers better; saving a few plastic bags is just window dressing.
Plastic bags do not waste oil, they are mainly made from oil refining by- products (Naptha, Ethylene etc) that would otherwise be I fared off. So plastic bags are an excellent use of otherwise waste produce.
Carrier bags get re-used for a wide variety of things and most people will re-use their lightweight plastic bags at least once before disposing of them, and they account for just 0.2% of the average household dustbin and only 0.05% of landfill!
The manufacture of plastic bags uses one third of the energy, resulting in half the pollution, and one eighth of the raw material requirement of paper bag production. The finished paper carrier bags are up to 24 times bulkier than their plastic counterpart resulting in 24 times as many lorries to transport them, and requiring 24 times more warehouse space to store them.
Paper bags give off greenhouse gases when in landfill whereas a plastic bag remains inert and does not give off methane or Co2, and no other shopping container can carry 2,500 times its own weight - even when wet!
After the carrier bag tax was imposed in Ireland the amount of carrier bags used fell dramatically (as you can imagine). However the amount of bin liners used rose dramatically (77% increase in pedal bin liner sales in Tesco alone) and the total amount of tonnage of plastic bags imposed into Ireland actually went up!
Bags for life are a great idea but can be self defeating if people don't actually remember to take them shopping and therefore have to purchase a bigger and heavier bag containing more plastic than would have otherwise have been used. And remember that research has shown that charging customers for a bag, especially when they have spent a reasonable amount of money in a store, can 'rub them up the wrong way' somewhat and ultimately adversely affect where they decide to shop.
Like paper plastic bags are a recyclable resource, and we should all be encouraged to re-use and recycle wherever possible. Above all it's imperative that plastic bags are disposed of properly, there is no doubt that they can be a danger to wildlife and they do look unsightly when caught on a barbed wire fence or in a hedge.
But this isn't the bags fault - it's down to the inconsiderate, selfish moron who threw it out of his (or her) car window or dropped it in the street! We should be concentrating on catching, educating and fining these idiots. After all it's not the 'bag for life recycler' type of person who causes the problem and no matter how many times we all use our bag for life (whatever it's made of), or how carefully we dispose of, or recycle, our bags it won't stop the irresponsible from littering our streets and countryside. I'm sure you will agree that plastic bags aren't necessarily bad, but their owners often are!
At Lion Labels we stock all types of carrier bags made from a wide variety of materials, including plastic, paper, recycled and biodegradable. So whichever type you choose we'll be more than pleased to take your order! But at least now hopefully you can make an informed decision based on a few truths about the much-maligned plastic bag. For more information go to: www.carrierbagtax.com where most of the above was 'lifted' from! And check out the picture of the cotton bag 'factory'! (Click on "cotton bags? get real about the environment.")