weekly sharing: carrier bag

in our daily life, we need a carrier bag to carry our groceries. the most popular bags are paper and plastic. what kind of bag should we use?

well, let's see the ordinary people's mindset about these bags:

Plastic

Needs 1000 years to decompose

Made from unrenewable source

Paper

Organic waste

Needs less time to decompose

Made from renewable source

are those facts real? well, let's see..

i want to give you their plus-minus sides. then, you will be the one who will make the decision whether you want to use paper bag or plastic bag as your daily carrier bag.

Paper

Paper bag

•weighs about 6 times more than a plastic bag

•takes up to 10 times more storage space

•often breaks after a single use

This means that….

•more fuel is used to transport paper bags

•takes up more space when they’re thrown away

•more bags are wasted

Fact: paper bags use about the same amount of oil to produce as a plastic bag. so that's why it is more expensive than plastic bag.

 Plastic

• Plastic bags are light – they’re by far the lightest of all materials used for carrier bags

• Plastic bags are durable – they can be re-used again and again

• Plastic bags are recyclable

plus, there is a new technology called biodegredable plastic bag. now this biodegredable plastic bag is booming in indonesia. but, what will happen if people use these bags?

In landfill

These holes in the ground are not designed to break down waste

In recycling systems

Plastics recyclers don’t like biodegradable plastics. They say that they’re difficult to identify and if left in the system can contaminate an entire batch of plastic waste, which stops it all being recycled.

and also, there is a concern that biodegradable bags will make people think that it’s alright to litter. but in that 2 years gap, who knows it will be eaten by animal? this will make them suffer and die.

resume about biodegredable plastic bags:

Although bio-based plastics are renewably sourced, this does not mean that they will reduce waste. Instead, they produce a different form of plastic waste that may require different waste management systems. Biodegradable plastics do not directly reduce plastic waste either, but make it less persistent in the environment.

GamaEARTH's Discussion:

gama earth's members had a discussion about the carrier bag they're going to use. surprisingly, we do not have an absolute voice. gama earth's members had different point of view about these bags. curious?

team paper: some of us chose paper bag. first, because it is made from renewable source. and because of its expensive price, people tend to cherish and protect the bag even more. so, we can reuse them again and again

team plasic: some of us chose plastic bag because it has good feature such as durable, strong, light, and cheap. we also can reuse them to sew our raincoat (and many more 'reuse' examples from mas barkah (especially in computer ware) that sadly the writer can not understand it to the fullest due to lack of understanding about computer).

so, how about your own choice? will you use paper bag or plastic bag? :)

-dzikrima