What is better for the environment, paper or plastic bags?

Question

Plastic pros: Does not use trees
Plastic cons: Takes decades to biodegrade

Paper pros: Very biodegradable
Paper cons: Cuts down millions of trees every year

What do you think?

Answer 1

Besides taking decades to biodegrade, plastic is made from a petroleum based product. As you and most everyone knows we are rapidly running out of petroleum. Our landfills are rapidly being filled and we are running out of environmentally safe areas to establish more landfills. Trees are one of America's renewable resources. In the last 30 years the technology has developed to do low impact harvesting of our forests. The plus side is logging our forest puts less environmental poisons into the atmosphere than manufacturing plastics with all the extremely hazardous chemicals that it takes to manufacture them. But there is an alternative to paper bags, that is cloth bags made from recycled jeans and other clothing products. With this approach we get two blessings. Less paper and plastic waste meaning landfills lasting longer, new businesses sewing discarded cloth into shopping bags. This would be a win win situation for all of America.

Answer 2

In the town where I live we cannot recycle plastic shopping bags. I know many of the bags are made with recycled plastic but the bags are an end product.
Paper shopping bags are recyclable and are great for recycling newspapers and magazines. The bags are often made from recycled paper. Yes, they biodegrade easily. I think the number of trees cut down for paper bags is probably very small. Another thing you might want to consider is that most lumbering is done on tree farms. This is where the trees are planted and grown and when harvested are replanted in a continuous cycle.
Overall, I'll take paper.

Answer 3

I know that plastic can be something that is wonderful to use in this modern day mobile society, but there is one thing that shows it is not wise to use plastic all the time. Many people say use plastic and then recycle it. Well not all types of plastics are able to be recycled. I have heard that landfills take up about 25% of landfills.

Now let us think about plastic bags. How many people recycle their plastic bags? Currently, rates of plastics recycling in the United States are behind those of other items, such as newspaper (about 80%) and cardboard (about 70%)

Plastic is not biodegradable and paper is. If you want to use what is better for the environment use paper. There is one thing being experimented with and that is biodigradable plastic. At this time this type of plastic has to be seen by the sun, and if other trash covers it up---it wont break down. This type of plastic is not able to be recycled because it is made with organic matter.

Answer 4

Paper because their source is renewable and natural, it's especially good if they are made from recycled paper or taken from a sustainable tree cutting process whereby new trees are planted after others are cut down. Plastic is just not good really. Or you could use those bags made out of textile fabric and just keep using them instead of using paper or plastic.

Answer 5

Paper is a natural product, plastic is not. However, it would be even better for the environment if we reduced use to the absolutely essential. I bring my own bag shopping, and sometimes use the boxes the supermarkets otherwise discard. These can be recycled in turn, after they have been put to other uses

Answer 6

Obviously the best is to bring your own reuseable bags. If for some reason you can't/won't do that, it depends where you live.

Paper is recycleable, but it requires trees to be cut down and they take more energy to produce than plastic bags.

Plastic grocery bags are not recycleable (if you put them in your home recycle bin they'll just get thrown out), but some places (like California) have programs to reuse the bags, and recycle/reuse bins. In that case you're using a bag that required less energy to produce and trees not to be cut down, and it's being reused. Not too bad - but only if your area has a reuse program.

Answer 7

neither one of them are good, using paper you have to cut trees and we need all of trees, our life as we know it depends on plants. Plastics require petroleum something like gasoline is getting to be overused by China and American. When you go shopping bring a tote bag and carry your food on the bag so that you can use it over and over again, unlike paper and plastic.

Answer 8

Paper is better. As you said, they goes back to dust.
If millions are planted each year to replace the ones cut down, I don't see the problem. However, I have seen the problem plastic cause in the creeks and rivers

Answer 9

I am in favour of the use of paper(or some biodegradable materials) bags. For this purpose we have to plant more n more trees.
While the plastic bags remain undecayed for years.
By any reason their small particles are swallowed by humans or by pets or by anyother living animals, can cause severe demage to their lives.
I do recomends to make the bags of some degradeable old clothes of our use. these can be used for months after washings. In this way we can contribute positively for our planet.

Answer 10

Plastic always plastic! There are very few uses for old plastic bags that don't eventually end up in the landfill.

The solution? BRING your own bag! It can be stylish and reused over and over again.