Why are disposable grocery bags such a bad thing for the environment? If you’ve been paying attention to the news in recent years you may have heard about the negative effects of plastic and paper disposable grocery bags. So the question is why? Why should you go out of your way to avoid using disposables, and start using eco friendly reusable shopping bags? Prior to buying into any movement or cause, it is significant to be familiar with precisely how your efforts should produce a positive impact on the environment and our earth. In today’s article, we will go over some key ecological concerns and problems connected with disposable shopping bag usage.
The Environmental Literacy Council does a wonderful job of explaining the negative effects of both plastic and paper disposable bags at EnviroLiteracy.Org. We will start with the environmental impact of creating plastic and paper bags from production to delivery. Plastic bags are manufactured using oil, and so the environmental consequences of making them encompasses everything from retrieving the oil, to the separation of products in the refinement process, to the plastic producing process, and the energy used and emissions created to distribute the bags to stores. So in reality, the production of plastic bags (as a result of and by our demand as consumers) is a contributory factor to our dependence on oil. Paper bags, are obviously produced from trees and add to worldwide deforestation and reduction of habitats all over the earth. Also, the amount of energy used to manufacture and distribute paper bags and the carbon emissions produced even exceeds that of plastic bags. The truth is that neither paper nor plastic bags are a healthy product for our environment, especially compared to eco friendly recycled grocery bags.
Of course, as you likely know, another chief problem with disposable bags is the extensive pollution and waste concern, especially associated with plastic bags. Plastic bags are like the “modern tumbleweed” blowing down the road. Plastic bags appear everywhere and more often than not get into swamps, creeks, rivers, lakes and in the ocean. As I was researching this piece I discovered some startling information at 5gyres.Org, which teaches people regarding the 5 gyres in our planet’s oceans. Here’s an example from their site: “At sea floating plastics are swept up into slow moving currents. These currents are called ‘gyres’. Our Oceans are dynamic systems…. made up of complex networks of currents… Large systems of these currents, coupled with wind and the earth’s rotation, create ‘gyres’, massive, slow rotating whirlpools in which plastic trash can accumulate.” The most famed of these is the North Pacific Gyre, which has also been called the “great pacific garbage patch”, has been studied the most and is an accumulation of trash and plastic estimated by many to be twice the size of Texas.
What so many folks don’t understand is that there are actually 5 gyres spread throughout our planet’s oceans where trash, and especially plastic is accumulating at a fast rate. One of the scariest parts about all this is that nautical animals often ingest this waste floating in the sea and suffocate or starve to death as a result. By using reusable green bags, instead of disposable paper or plastic bags, our individual actions add to the resolution rather than the problem.
The ecological quandary our world finds itself in nowadays requires that we take quick action. You now can plainly observe, the widespread use of plastic and paper shopping bags adds to serious environmental problems that won’t just vanish. We should alter our individual habits by reminding ourselves to use eco friendly shopping bags whenever we can. By taking a stand and opposing the common pollution problem created by disposable shopping bags, we are creating a better world one decision at a time.
