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Devin Kilburn

Professor Dean Leonard

English 1201.512

01 April 2021

Are Plastic Bag Bans Saving The World, or Destroying It Quietly?

Seems like every day cities across the United States are coming up with laws that ban the

use of single use plastic bags or the bags you would normally get at the grocery store. They do so

with the best intentions, which are to help the environment. Humans are becoming experts at

destroying the environment, especially when the environmentally friendly option is more

expensive, but sometimes we are so zoomed in and closed minded that we lose sight of the

bigger picture and hurt the environment more while thinking we are saving the world. This has

never been more evident than it is with plastic bag bans that are becoming so popular in this day

and age.

When Plastic bag bans were created in 1959 they were created to save the environment

according to creator Sten Gustaf Thulin’s son. The idea was

because so many trees were being cut down for paper bags,

that people could use plastic instead. It was significantly

more durable, therefore it could be used again and again. By

1990 plastic bags had nearly replaced all paper bags around the

world, and according to the United Nations plastic bags are

produced at a rate of one trillion per year. [ CITATION Wes19 \l 1033 ]

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When people in 2021 think of alternatives to plastic bags, many people go straight for

paper bags. They are Biodegradable right? Well that’s true, but studies show that is where the

benefits end. For starters, paper bags are much heavier than plastic

bags, therefore it takes much more energy to get the bags to the end

user. In order to get an amount of paper bags equivalent to one semi

trailer full of plastic bags it would take 7 full trailers. That is seven

times the fuel, seven times the greenhouse gases from the truck and

seven times the time from the driver. It takes more than four times as

much energy to even manufacture a paper bag as it does to manufacture a plastic bag. Paper bag

production requires that forests must be cut down (trees are absorbers of greenhouse gases) and

then the subsequent manufacturing of bags produces greenhouse gases. The majority of paper

bags are made by heating wood chips at high temperatures under pressure in a chemical solution.

The use of these toxic chemicals contributes to both air pollution and water pollution. These

chemicals can pollute waterways; the toxicity of the chemicals is long-term and settles into the

sediments, working its way through the food chain. Further toxicity is generated as both plastic

and paper bags degrade. Paper bags generate 70% more air and 50 times more water pollutants

than plastic bags. [CITATION Bel11 \l 1033 ]

However, plastics are currently made from a by-product of oil or natural gas. This by-

product arises because the world uses fuels, and would arise whether or not the by-product were

used to make plastic goods. Until different fuels have been developed, it makes good

environmental sense to use the by-product, instead of further depleting our agricultural resources

and water to make paper or cloth bags or vegetable based plastic[ CITATION Bel11 \l 1033 ]
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Research demonstrates that paper in todays landfills does not degrade or break down at a

substantially faster rate than plastic. In fact, nothing is able to completely degrade in modern

landfills because of the lack of water, light, oxygen and other important elements that are

required for the full degradation process. It is worth noting that a paper bag also takes up more

space than a plastic bag in a landfill.

In 2005, the Scottish Government issued a full environment impact assessment report on

the effects of a proposed plastic bag fee. The Report contains a comparison between plastic and

paper bags, outlined in “figure 1”. The lightweight plastic bag was given a score of 1 in every

category as a reference point. A score greater than 1 would indicate that a paper bag makes a

greater contribution to the environmental problem than a lightweight plastic bag. The indicators

take account of emissions which occur over the whole lifecycle.

Figure 1 A table of the environmental impacts of paper vs. plastic bags (Bell and Cave)

The only category where a paper bag is better than the plastic bag, according to the study,

is in the “risk of litter” category. I believe that the risk of litter could be mitigated by simply

bringing awareness to the issues, and even possibly giving incentive to recycling. I don’t believe

completely banning the bags is the correct answer.

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Cotton has some serious drawbacks also. A Study out of Australia said that only 2.4% of

the world’s cropland is planted with cotton, yet it

accounts for 24% of the global market for insecticides and

11% of the worlds pesticides, the World Wildlife Fund

reports. Not to mention that every pound of cotton

requires more than 5,000 gallons of water on average, a

thirst much greater than that of any vegetable and even

most meats. And cotton, unlike paper, is not currently recycled in most places.[ CITATION Adl16 \l

1033 ]

Standard reusable cotton grocery bags must be reused at least 131 times to ensure that

global warming potential is less than that of a plastic bag used only once. One study also found

that organic cotton bags would need to be reused 20,000 times to have the same overall

environmental impact of a plastic bag reused once. [ CITATION Bag21 \l 1033 ]

In America, we have very little reason to recycle anything aside from metal. Many scrap

yards will pay money for metal, although it is not much at least it is something. Everything else

that is recycled is only from houses who want to save the environment for only that reason. I am

not saying that everyone needs paid for their recycling. When I was in my German class, my

teacher said that growing up, they had to pay per pound of trash, but recycling was free. I have

always thought that was a great was to get people to recycle. If done correctly people who

recycled would save money, because people who didn’t recycle would be paying more of the

bill. It would take a lot of work, and upset a lot of people, but I would argue it would be easier

and cheaper to implement than a plastic bag ban.

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There are also other issues that come with a plastic bag ban which people don’t even

think about. One of the biggest issues is trash bag sales. Many people reuse grocery store bags to

pick up dog feces, and to line small garbage cans such as the ones normally put in bathrooms or

laundry rooms. When there are no more cheap, thin bags to reuse people are forced to buy

thicker, heavier and less environmentally friendly trash bags.

Figure 2 Various Trash bag sales before and after the plastic bag ban (Taylor)

All things considered plastic bag bans without any education only hurt the environment,

which is the exact opposite of what the people advocating for them are promising. I don’t believe

there are any people who wake up and think “Today I am going to completely destroy the

environment we live in.” I think that everyone wants to leave this place in a better place than we

received it. Unfortunately, our idea of “environmentally friendly” is constantly changing and

evolving based on the most recent science. The problem is that no one wants to admit they were
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ever wrong, which makes it that much harder to look at new science when it disagrees with what

you have been advocating for years.

Plastic bags are far from perfect and do cause pollution, particularly in water. They float

which is appealing for lots of marine life. The handles could get wrapped around animals, or all

too often, they are ingested. Instead of spending all this money on trying to eliminate them we

could put that money towards recycling and education.

Many of the arguments against plastic talk about how it is not recyclable, which is untrue.

According to the Georgia Recycling Coalition, many of the plastic bags that are recycled in the

U.S. end up as composite lumber, this is a mix of plastic bags and wood scraps, such as sawdust

and old pallets, therefore it is mostly made from recycled products and waste from other

processes. This type of lumber is long lasting, and naturally holds up well to the elements, which

makes it a great option for decks or outdoor projects. Unfortunately, today it is more expensive

than natural wood. If more materials were recycled, that would lead to more composite lumber

and that would in turn, bring the prices down.

We as a human race are destroying the environment. We aren’t necessarily doing it on

purpose, but sometimes we are so zoomed in and closed minded that we lose sight of the bigger

picture and hurt the environment more while thinking we are saving the world. This has never

been more evident than it is with plastic bag bans and people are ignoring the science that comes

out on a regular basis. We are spending so much money to prevent people from using one of the

more balanced options when you measure reusability and environmental impact. Instead of

fixing the problem we are making laws that cost people more money, and make people feel

better. So next time you go to the store and are wondering which bag to use, the easy answer is
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the one you already have. No matter which bag you use, reuse it as many times as possible, and

in as many ways as possible. Do not throw them away when you are done with them. Nearly

every store has a barrel where they can be deposited and recycled. We don’t need to make laws

restricting things, if we just educate people on the better options and do our best to make it as

easy as possible, most people will choose the better option for the environment.
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Works Cited

Adler, Ben. “Banning Plastic Bags Is Great for the World, Right? Not So Fast.” Wired, Conde
Nast, 10 June 2016, www.wired.com/2016/06/banning-plastic-bags-great-world-right-not-
fast/.

Bell, Kirsty, and Suzie Cave. “Comparison of Environmental Impact of Plastic, Paper and Cloth
Bags.” Northern Ireland Assembly, 23 Feb. 2011,
www.niassembly.gov.uk/globalassets/documents/raise/publications/2011/environment/361
1.pdf.

“Plastic Bags and the Environment.” Bag the Ban, 26 June 2020, www.bagtheban.com/learn-the-
facts/environment/.

Rebecca Taylor Lecturer in Economics. “Plastic Bag Bans Can Backfire If Consumers Just Use
Other Plastics Instead.” The Conversation, 5 Jan. 2021, theconversation.com/plastic-bag-
bans-can-backfire-if-consumers-just-use-other-plastics-instead-110571.

Weston, Phoebe. “Plastic Bags Were Created to Save the Planet, According to Son of Engineer
Who First Created Them.” The Independent, Independent Digital News and Media, 17 Oct.
2019, www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/plastic-bags-pollution-paper-cotton-
tote-bags-environment-a9159731.html.