article on replacing plastic bag with paper bags
Answers
The war against plastic bags seems to have been won on the high street this Christmas. Everyone from classy French label APC to the likes of Nike (complete with swoosh), Topshop and even Primark hand out brown paper bags. An armful of paper bags feels so much less trashy than a swaddling of plastic; they recall the classic brown paper groceries bag of old.
So victory for paper bags – they are the children of trees! – in the war against decadent, dolphin-smothering plastic. Except, like most wars, it is far from clear if it has left the world a better place. Wrap, the government-funded company set up to reduce waste, summarises the drawbacks of paper bags: while from a renewable source and biodegradable, compostable and recyclable, they require far more energy to make and transport than plastic, have less re-use potential and produce methane if dumped in landfill.
"Faced with the question of paper or plastic, the answer should always be neither," says Reuseit.com. According to a 2007 study(funded by US plastic bag manufacturers), it takes almost four times as much energy to manufacture a paper bag as a plastic bag. Paper-bag manufacture uses 20 times as much water as plastic and paper requires more energy to be recycled.
Cloth bags are far from perfect. An Environment Agency report this year found that a resusable cloth bag would have to be taken out 131 times to reduce its environmental impact to that of a single-use plastic bag. And despite all our fretting, plastic bag use has actually risen. Rather than pitching paper against plastic, we really need to change our habits. Apart from banning ourselves from buying more than we can carry loose in our arms, the obvious solution is a tax on all bags, an economic nudge that if we can't shop less we should at least reuse those bags stuffed under the kitchen sink.
Answer:
Replacing plastic bags with paper bags? Nowadays, when we buy things we are served a paper bag to carry our things. The fight against plastic bags seems to be successful as all brands big or small are handing out branded paper bags to its customers. Carrying few paper bags feels much better than an armful of plastic ones!
Though paper bags are way better than the plastic ones, the former does have a few drawbacks. Though they come from a renewable source and are biodegradable, compostable and recyclable, it needs more energy to be prepared and transported than plastic. The potential of re-using them is also limited and if dumped in landfill they produce methane. According to a stud, it was found that it takes a lot of energy to manufacture a paper bag. Paper-bag manufacturers also use more amount of water for paper bag production and further it requires more energy to be recycled.
So both paper and plastic bags aren’t eco-friendly! So what’s the solution? Cloth bags are the best option as they are reusable and don’t pose a threat to the environment.