When it comes to deciding whether or not you should use paper or plastic when you are at the
grocery store, you may be surprised to learn that the answer is not an easy one. The fact is one
has a distint environmental advantage, however, both can contribute to landfill.
The average family uses four hundred plastic bags a year with many of those bags ending up directly
in the garbage without being reused for anything else. Some families will reuse some at least for
lining bathroom or bedroom garbage cans, to pick up dog waste, or to carry things from the house to
the car for different purposes. The major trouble with this is that plastic bags do not decompose
quickly.
While some people insist on using plastic bags over paper because they want to save the trees, they
are still adding to landfill with plastic waste. There are people though that use the paper bags
thinking that because the material is natural,it will decompose faster, however this does not
happen as fast as they might think. In normal circumstances the bags would decompose however, this
is not the case as they are trapped under huge piles of synthetic material in landfills. Because
there is not enough air circulation decomposition will not take place as quickly as usual. And with
families using about 400 paper bags a year on average it can add up fast.
The downsides to using paper bags is that they are not all that efficient in carrying large loads
of groceries and can fall apart under heavy loads or if they become wet. They can also cost more to
produce per bag then the plastic bag. Paper bags also have a bad habit of taking up more space in
stores then the plastic bags do. While it may seem that in the short term the plastic bags are the
better choice, in the long run the plastic bags are less environmentally friendly.
Plastic bags have been known to cause harm to animals by them trying to eat the bags or getting
caught in them. With reponsible disposal techniques, this should become less common and it is
important to get this problem under control.
So when it comes down to it, picking paper or plastic really comes down to which will benefit you
more. Even though trees are used in the production of paper bags, they can be recycled and will
naturally decompose, where as the plastic bags cannot. With the long life span and risk to wildlife
paper bags seems to be the more environmental choice.
