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Is This Shopping Bag More ‘Eco Friendly’ Than Plastic? Only If It’s Used 20,000 Times

canada-man

Well-known member
Jun 16, 2007
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Toronto, Ontario
canadianmale.wordpress.com
https://issuesinsights.com/2019/06/...c-bag-is-still-more-environmentally-friendly/


Plastic is the eco-activists’ favored demon of the moment. Policymakers can’t get enough of banning plastic consumer items. But the bans are worse than useless. They are counterproductive.

California leads the world in virtue signaling, having outlawed single-use plastics bags, as well as plastic straws. Plastic bottles of shampoo, conditioner, and soap handed out by hotels might be the next items prohibited under California law, if lawmakers don’t ban plastics utensils first. Other states have rushed to enact bans, including Vermont, New York, and Hawaii (which has a de facto statewide ban due to multiple county bans). More cities than can be easily counted have either already or are in the process of outlawing various plastics. Canada’s lightweight Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, never one to pass up an opportunity to appear more virtuous than thou, is promising a national prohibition on single-use plastics by 2021.

There are many reasons why banning single-use plastic bags in Western nations is wrong. Let’s look at a few:

The multi-use bags that have replaced single-use plastic bags have been found to carry nasty bugs that can be fatal.

Washing fabric bags carries enormous costs.

Thicker plastic bags need to be used at least 11 times before the sought-after environmental improvements are realized, which is far longer than their typical lifespans.

Consumers are stripped of private choices, and are forced to buy bigger, heavier bags, which are less environmentally friendly, to do the work of single-use bags which are actually multi-use bags, because consumers use them to carry other items, line their trash cans at home, and pick up after pets.

Only about 1% of the plastic in the ocean comes directly from the U.S.

Less than 1% of visible litter, in other words just about zero, is made up of plastic bags.

Now let’s add another: A consumer would have to use an organic cotton shopping bag 20,000 times before it inflicts less environmental damage than a single-use plastic bag. So says the Danish Ministry of Environment and Food. To put that 20,000 figure in perspective, a bag would have to be put through nearly 55 years of daily use to reach an even tradeoff.

Other bags also have to be used multiple times before their impact is less than that of a single-use plastic bag. A recycled polyethylene terephthalate bag requires at least 84 uses, a non-woven polypropylene bag 52, a woven polypropylene bag 45. Bleached and unbleached paper need at least 43 uses each to have a smaller environmental footprint.

While those minimums are a bit easier to reach than the threshold for organic cotton bags, it’s reasonable to assume some might not be reached at all. Can anyone actually use a paper bag 43 times before it begins to rip apart? How about the polypropylene bags — are they durable enough in real-world use to make a difference, especially if they’re washed to prevent contamination?

The rush to be green has turned out little that increases the greenery around us. Too often it has produced outcomes that make things worse. Given this history, the future isn’t looking so good.
 

drdemento

Active member
May 14, 2015
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This post is referencing a questionable source. What is "Issues and Insights"?

It appears to be a propaganda site lobbying for a special interest group.
 

GameBoy27

Well-known member
Nov 23, 2004
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I have a bunch of reusable bags that I take with me when I go shopping. But if I'm buying milk bags, meat, poultry or anything else that might leak, I like to put them in plastic bags. I then use those plastic bags to line waste buckets in my bedroom, washroom, basement, compost bin etc. I also use them when I clean the cat's litter box. So those bags I get my groceries in are no longer single use bags. You also have the option to place extra bags (if you have them) in the blue bin.

So the interesting part is that if they ban "single use" plastic bags, you will then have to buy plastic bags to put your garbage in. Which makes them single use bags.
 

SchlongConery

License to Shill
Jan 28, 2013
11,023
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This post is referencing a questionable source. What is "Issues and Insights"?

It appears to be a propaganda site lobbying for a special interest group.

Perhaps you might want to read the article and assess what is being said, before you dismiss it on the basis of who wrote it. Especially if you have a demonstrated bias that has already dismissed it as a special interest propaganda site...
 

Richard.TO

Active member
Jun 19, 2012
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Perhaps you might want to read the article and assess what is being said, before you dismiss it on the basis of who wrote it. Especially if you have a demonstrated bias that has already dismissed it as a special interest propaganda site...
How do you know he didn’t? Did you?.....before you opened your big fat mouth? You’re such an asshole.
It is definitely a right wing publication.
 

drdemento

Active member
May 14, 2015
202
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43
Perhaps you might want to read the article and assess what is being said, before you dismiss it on the basis of who wrote it. Especially if you have a demonstrated bias that has already dismissed it as a special interest propaganda site...
You might want to review your own tag line. I did read the article. I also read a few other articles on the site. I don’t dispute the information provided. My concern with sites like this is not what they tell you but rather what they don’t tell you
 

GameBoy27

Well-known member
Nov 23, 2004
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That may (or may not) be true. But what's missing in the equation is the fact if you used the cotton shopping bag 20,000 times you would reduce the environmental damage of not one but 20,000 single use plastic bags.
Unless of course you reuse the single use plastic bags for garbage bags and composed. Because you have to put waste in plastic bags. Like I said earlier, you can either reuse the single use bags, which no longer makes them single use, or buy new ones to put your waste in. Making them single use. Kinda defeats the purpose, doesn't it!
 

HungSowel

Well-known member
Mar 3, 2017
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And it is exactly what was stated: the environmental damage of producing and washing 1 organic cotton shopping bag is the same as of 20,000 plastic bags. So, unless you plan to use that cotton bag for 20,000 times, it is more eco-friendly to use plastic bags. Next step- - go bagless: put everything from your shopping card to the trunk of your car and then make several trips from the car to your kitchen to unload. Live in a building? - take stares to save electricity. Do not have a car: take a bike. Better yet, buy a horse (bud do not forget to scoop after it in reusable metal bucket and with your bare hands and use it as a compost)
If you put everything in the trunk of your car, then you would have to wash your trunk after every use which is even worse than washing just a cotton bag.

You might say that is absurd to wash your trunk after every use, but is it any more absurd as washing your cotton bag after every use?
 

Silkroad

Active member
Sep 25, 2001
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And it is exactly what was stated: the environmental damage of producing and washing 1 organic cotton shopping bag is the same as of 20,000 plastic bags. So, unless you plan to use that cotton bag for 20,000 times, it is more eco-friendly to use plastic bags. Next step- - go bagless: put everything from your shopping card to the trunk of your car and then make several trips from the car to your kitchen to unload. Live in a building? - take stares to save electricity. Do not have a car: take a bike. Better yet, buy a horse (bud do not forget to scoop after it in reusable metal bucket and with your bare hands and use it as a compost)
I'm sorry, but you're wrong. On top of that, your extrapolation borders on the ridiculous.
 

HungSowel

Well-known member
Mar 3, 2017
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Assuming a shopping is 1 gram, 20k bags is 20kg worth of plastic. Under what conditions is a 100 gram cotton bag equivalent to 20kg of plastic?
 
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