Plastic shopping bags
made in the United States
are made from natural
gas,
not oil.
America has at least
another century
of natural gas supplies.
Plastic grocery bags
require 70% less
energy
to manufacture
than paper bags.
It takes far more
raw
materials
and fossil fuel energy
to grow and harvest trees,
make pulp
and
turn it into paper bags,
than to make plastic bags.
Manufacturing plastic bags
also consumes less than
4% of the water
needed
to make paper bags.
In the process,
plastic bags produce
fewer
greenhouse gases
per use than paper
or cotton bags.
It then takes seven trucks
to deliver the same number
of paper bags
that a single truck
can haul if the bags
are made from plastic.
That
means it also takes
far more (mostly fossil fuel)
energy to transport
reusable
and paper bags than it does
to transport plastic bags.
EPA data show
that plastic bags
make up only 0.5 %
of the U.S.
municipal
waste stream.
Plastic bags are
100% reusable
and recyclable,
and many stores
make that process simple.
Reusable and paper bags
take up far more space
than plastic bags in
landfills,
and the airless environment
of landfills means paper bags
do
not decompose for years,
or even decades.
Most reusable bags
are made in China and Vietnam,
then shipped to the
USA
in fossil fuel burning
cargo ships.
Reusable bags are made
from
heavier and thicker
plastic or cotton,
which takes more energy
to
produce, even if it’s
recycled fabric or plastic.
A reusable bag
must be
used no less than
132 times before having
a “greener” environmental
impact that a plastic grocery bag.
Reusable bags aren’t recyclable,
and reusable bag giveaways
are
environmentally costly
when unwanted bags
end up in the dumpster,
often
after one or even no use.
Research from Arizona
has determined that
few people wash their
reusable grocery
shopping bags.
8% of reusable bags
harbor E. coli
bacteria,
and nearly all unwashed bags
harbor other pathogenic bacteria.
A Grocery Outlet Store
told a Portland, Oregon
newspaper that it lost
over $10,000 to shoplifters
walking in with and using
their own reusable bag
to exit with merchandise
without going through
checkout lines.
Following Seattle’s ban,
store owners surveyed
post-ban reported
seeing their costs
for carryout bags
increase between
40% and 200%