So you have made your resolution to GO GREEN this year; you are eating organic, you are recycling magazines, newspapers, you are conserving electricity…….you are making all efforts to lead a green life.

Well, you are at a leading grocery store and you are asked: “Do you want paper or plastic bags for your groceries”? Since you have adopted all green initiatives this year, you choose paper bags thinking that paper is a natural product and bio-degradable.

Did you make a right choice? Does this help you go greener and save our environment? Well, let’s take a look.

Paper bags come from trees while plastic is a petroleum product - it comes from oil.

Plastic bags are much more resource efficient. Plastic bags require much less energy than paper bags to manufacture.

ENERGY TO PRODUCE BAG ORIGINALLY (BTUs)
Safeway Plastic Bags: 594 BTUs
Safeway Paper Bags: 2511 BTUs

Plastic bags are much thinner and lighter than paper bags; it would take seven 45 foot trucks to transport the same amount of paper bags as one 45 foot truck of plastic bags.

Paper bag production produces 70% more air pollution and 50 times more water pollution than plastic bag production.

On average, 10 billion paper grocery bags are used by Americans every year. Increased paper bag production leads to global warming, as trees have to be cut down which are a major absorber of green-house gases.

Disposing of paper bags is also inferior to plastic bags. The amount of waste by weight is 400% higher with paper than plastic, and the amount of waste by volume is higher by more than 250%.

Paper, when thrown away, can either be recycled or end up in the landfill. If it ends up in the landfill, over time (and usually many,many years) it will break down. Plastic does not break down - your Starbucks plastic coffee container will always be in the landfill.

ENERGY TO RECYCLE PACKAGE ONCE (BTUs)
Safeway Plastic Bags: 17 BTUs
Safeway Paper Bags: 1444 BTUs

Thought for the readers:

Both paper and plastic bags consume large amounts of natural resources and the majority will eventually end up in the landfill. Both bags can be recycled to some extent. What do you do? My suggestion is:

Using reusable shopping bags is the way to go! Almost all major grocery stores are offering reusable shopping bags.

How may of you are using them??