Are paper bags better for the environment?

With the latest report regarding supermarket distribution of plastic bags across Britain going up, instead of reducing to the 50% reduction pledge, you may start to question why don’t all the supermarkets switch to paper bags, like the good ol days?

I was please to see the amount of paper bags floating around Ireland on a visit last year but have recently been diving into the world of the paper bag and it turns out the environmental impact is far greater than one may initially think, as a section from an article in The Independent states:

“Yet, in many ways, paper bags are much worse for the environment. Paper bag production emits more than three times the amount of greenhouse gases that plastic bag manufacture does, according to a Scottish government report. An estimated 14 million trees a year are cut down to make them. The result is a very sizeable carbon footprint. Even when they’re made from recycled paper, the process still uses 91 per cent more energy than plastic recycling. In addition, paper bags are anywhere between six and 10 times heavier than lightweight plastic bags and, as such, cost more to transport. And if not recycled, they take up more room in a landfill site”

So the answer to the bag issue?  The best and most true environmental solution to the insurmountable waste build up by plastic bags and the high environmental impact of paper bags is to switch to re-useable bags.
Pop a simple material bag in your handbag, backpack, briefcase, or car boot or if you do have a few plastic bags lying around keep them handy and use them over and over until all life is gone from them.

While recycling may be better for the environment than dumping into landfills, re-use is by far the best way to go, cuts back on not only the energy used in the recycling and transportation process but also in the production of that item in the first place!