If thinking about how you are going to carry your most recent purchase home, please take the time to think whether your plastic or Paper Bags or will end up in a landfill. Once at that landfill, will the plastic and Paper Sacks be there for a small or large amount of time? Perhaps they will be there indefinitely. It would be wonderful if these things were taken into account before you answer that vital question, “paper or plastic?”

In today’s world we need to be cognizant that every action we take can (and often does) have a lasting effect on the environment. When we visita restaurant for Carryout food, the amount of rubbish left over is sobering. Take into account the Styrofoam container the food comes in as well as the plastic utensils, paper napkins, cups, straws and bag. All of these things need to go somewhere and usually it is into the garbage can on its way to a landfill far from your home. We rarely consider it after that.

The bags, sacks and containers have a lasting consequence on the earth. Well over a billion single-use plastic bags are given out every single day. There are repercussions for the fleeting convenience of unlimited, free, single-use plastic bags. To observe the real costs, we must look at the numerous impacts of a bag’s life. In a landfill, plastic bags take up to 1,000 years to degrade. As litter on our roads they breakdown into tiny bits, contaminating our soil and water. When plastic bags breakdown, little plastic pieces often create threats to sea life and contaminate the food supply for both humans and animals. Collection, transporting and disposal of plastic bag waste create an added ecological impact. Around 7 billion pounds of plastic bags, wraps and sacks enter the waste stream every year in the United States alone, placing an unwanted burden on our diminishing landfill room. Plastic bags cause air pollution if incinerated.

Paper bags are now thought to be a better choice. Their harmful results on our globe is far less. It takes almost 85%less energy to recycle a pound of plastic than it takes to recycle a pound of paper, the public recycles fare more than that of plastic bags. Usually the paper bags were made of recycled paper to spin]begin|start[/spin] with. Paper sacks in the landfills of today do not break down at a substantially faster rate than plastic does. In fact, nothing totally degrades in modern landfills because of the lack of water, light, and oxygen. A paper sack consumes more space than a traditional plastic bag, but since paper is recycled at an elevated rate, the added space in a landfill is not a worry.

What should we do then when transporting our stuff? First, try to choose paper over plastic if possible. Perhaps you could use and reuse both your paper and plastic bags many, many times. Several stores will give you a slight discount for doing so. You also are saving the store money to. Most significantly however you should take along a cloth bag with you always. This way you will be ready when asked “paper or plastic?” You can answer “neither, I brought my own bag, thank you.” And the earth shall thank you in return.

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