How many times have you been asked that question? Considering you hear it almost every time you check out at the grocery store, the mind boggles when attempting to calculate the actual number.

 

Surprisingly enough, it’s not nearly as easy to answer as you might think. Here’s a brief rundown on the environmental impact of each:

 

 

U.S. consumers use more than 10 billion paper bags every year, which require the cutting down of approximately 14 million trees annually. In addition, the paper industry expends an enormous amount of energy in the form of fossil-fuel burning heavy machinery, from harvesting the trees which are trucked to the mills and paper manufacturing plants and eventually end up at the store in the form of shopping bags.

 

It takes approximately four times more energy to make a paper bag than it does to make a plastic bag. In addition, many hazardous chemicals are used in the process of making paper, and the amount of water used is staggering.

 

Even though paper is recyclable, the recycling process again requires a tremendous amount of hazardous chemicals and water to disintegrate, decontaminate, screen, bleach, and remanufacture the paper. And yes, paper bags are technically biodegradable, but the process takes a very long time, and there are some who argue that the paper’s decomposition may be slowed or even prevented by the lightless, airtight conditions found in many landfills.  

 

 

Americans use billions of plastic bags every year. Plastic bags are made of polyethylene, a by-product of the oil-refining process which comes directly from the refinery to the bag-making factory in the form of tiny resin pellets. (In a recent national survey, 7 out of 10 Americans polled were unaware that plastic was a petroleum product!) However, except for the heavy machinery used to get the oil, bring it to the refinery and get the pellets to the factory, the rest of the process only uses electricity.

 

Recycling plastic is also a lot easier than recycling paper. Basically, you just need to melt it back down…no additional chemicals are required. All in all, it takes approximately 98% less energy to recycle a pound of plastic than it does to recycle a pound of paper.

 

Unfortunately, plastic never breaks down. So-called “biodegradable” plastic bags are actually plastic mixed into the paper so that the bag breaks down into little itty bits of plastic. Also, hundreds of thousands of marine animals are killed every year by eating plastic bags, which can suffocate, choke or block their digestive systems.

 

 

According to a life-cycle energy analysis conducted by Franklin & Associates, “…plastic is the better bag. At current recycling rates, two plastic bags use less energy and produce less solid, atmospheric, and waterborne waste than a single paper bag.”

 

In the end the best thing by far is to skip the bag. And if you absolutely can’t imagine life without bags, bring your own, personal, reusable bags to the store with you every time you shop. It’s the green thing to do!