Shopping with plastic, paper or something else?

This week has seen the last days of ‘end of year’ sales in most shops around the town. As consumers have piled their selection of discounted goods to the counters and stretched their Visa cards a bit more, we asked ourselves what option should they choose when it comes to carrying the shopping home?

According to a Australian study, about 6.9 billion plastic bags get used in Australia every year. Approximately 75% of these get a ‘second life’ being used as bin liners, and for one reason or other, total of 6.6B bags end up in landfill. Knowing the long or none biodegradability of these bags, we looked on.

Paper bags are becoming more common in shops nowadays. However, when you compare the amount of energy, resources and CO2 making a paper bag vs. plastic bag requires, you will be probably surprised to hear the results from an American study we came across. Energy requirements for paper bags at zero recycling rate is 20% to 40% more than for equivalent amount of plastic bags, and even with 100% recycling rate, plastic bags still require less energy. Equally plastic bags contribute c. 80% less solid waste than paper bags (again at zero recycling rate) – meaning less material in landfills, and c. 63-73% less emissions.


Third option obviously is to use “long-life” reusable bags. According to the first study we referred above, canvas bags are 14 times better than plastic bags and 39 times better than paper bags, assuming that canvas bags get a good workout and are used 500 times during their life cycle. Instead of virgin cotton canvas bags, there are plenty of options to choose from when it comes to materials - recycled rubber, old billboard adverts, jute, bamboo, strong polyester, and more. So choose your favourite and stick with it. Less waste, less landfill, less emissions.

Happy shopping!




Images courtesy of Stora Enso and Envirosax