Paper or Plastic?

Plastic Bags

Plastic is a very new material, so we don't know exactly how long it takes to decompose.  However, researchers say it may take 500-1,000 years!  Wow! That is a long time.  It takes this long because microbes don't recognize polyethylene--the major component of plastic bags--as food, breakdown rates by this means in landfills is virtually nil.

• Shoppers worldwide are using 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags per year.  This translates to about a million bags every minute across the globe.
• Every year, Americans throw away some 100 billion plastic bags.
• The energy needed to manufacture and transport disposable bags eats up more resources and creates global warming emissions.
• The production of plastic bags requires petroleum and often natural gas, both non-renewable resources that increase our dependency on foreign suppliers.

 

A river in China, choking on plastic

• When it rains, all the plastic bags that people toss into the trash are washed down the stormdrains, which lead directly to our rivers and oceans

Paper:

To make all the bags we use each year, it takes 14 million trees for paper!

So...Neither.  Bring your cloth bags to the grocery store! 

*Remember you can always take your plastic bags back to the grocery store and they will recycle them.

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