Paper bags just seem friendlier to the environment, right? They don’t have that slick petroleum look like plastic bags do; they’re a cheerful kraft color; they fold up neatly to stack in your cupboard for next time (assuming they didn’t get destroyed this time).
But research, such as this report, makes clear that plastic really doesn’t have much on plastic. To wit:
- It doesn’t break down any faster than plastic in landfills. That’s because, while paper breaks down much faster under ideal conditions, landfills are not ideal conditions. The lack of light, air and oxygen means pretty much nothing decomposes, so paper and plastic are destined to spend equal amounts of time there.
- Paper bags are bigger than plastic, which means they take up more space in landfills. They’re recycled at a higher rate, which mitigates that fact, but that still means they still have a greater per-bag impact on landfills.
- It takes four times as much energy to manufacture a paper bag, as compared to plastic, and the raw materials have to come from trees, a natural resource that is otherwise carbon-fixing. Making paper bags not only adds waste to the world, it kills one of our greatest tools for fighting pollution.
- Paper bags generate 70 more air pollutants than plastic.
- They generate 50 times more water pollutants than plastic.
- It takes 91 percent less energy to recycle a plastic bag than it does a paper bag.
- Paper bags are very thick, so shipping them costs more fuel per bag.
This report is admittedly biased toward plastic (and reusable bags), but if this is starting to sound like a vote for plastic bags, think again. Plastic leaches chemicals into our oceans and waterways, breaks into small pieces and accumulates in the stomachs of baby birds, strangles fish and collects into great seafaring clumps that become islands and continent-sized garbage patches. The point isn’t that plastic is good; it’s that our unwavering assumption that paper’s okay is wrong.
Here are a few more reasons not to trust that paper bag’s cheerful, eco-friendly-looking façade.