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

Clothes Waste



Weekly Sharing March 21st, 2013
by Lady Varesqua Valentina

We always thinking about less waste with less plastic bottle by using tumbler.
We always thinking about carrier bag, better to use plastic bag or paper bag.
We always thinking about go green with less paper by using e-book.

We always think about what we see, but never see ourselves.
When you look him from the outside, you know that he uses some clothes.
1. Jacket
2. Batik
3. Jeans
4. and of course underwear

People often change their clothes in a day, many clothes that they use in a day.
People sometimes buy a new cloth and many clothes that they buy in every time they go to shop.
And the fact, some clothes are rarely used or used once a month or a year.

Actually :
•  People not regularly checking what is in their wardrobes, clothes are most commonly unworn because they no longer fit or are in disrepair.
•  Many people lack an ability to alter clothing or undertake more complex repairs
•  People are willing to buy and keep their own clothes but won’t to share it, even though they never wear the clothes.


 
The global average water footprint of cotton fabric is 10,000 litre per kilogram.
It means that :
•  It takes 7,996 gallons water to make a leather jacket
•  One cotton shirt of 250 gram costs about 2500 litres water.
•  A jeans of 800 gram will cost 8000 litres water.

Our habits by fashion consumerism not only about the water footprint, but also the impact and the waste.

There are some facts about clothes

The materials used to make the clothes we buy also matter:
•  Polyester, the most commonly used manufactured fiber, is made from petroleum in an energy-intensive process that emits volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and acid gases into the air. The process also uses a large amount of water for cooling.
•  The manufacturing of nylon emits nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas with a carbon footprint 310 times that of carbon dioxide.
•  Rayon, derived from wood pulp, often relies on clearing old growth forests to make way for water-hungry eucalyptus trees, from which the fiber is derived.
•  Cotton, found in most clothing, is the most pesticide-dependent crop in the world. It takes one-third of a pound of pesticides to make one t-shirt.
•  When manufacturing clothes, dyeing requires a hefty amount of water, and its fixatives often flow into rivers and sewers. Also, all “easy care” and “permanent press” cottons are treated with formaldehyde.
(http://earth911.com/recycling/household/clothing-and-textile/facts-about-clothes/ )

 What will happen if we still have a habit “fashion consumerism”?

•  Americans still throw away more than 68 pounds of clothing and textiles per person per year. Clothing and other textiles represent about four percent of the municipal solid waste stream.
•  UK throw away more than 1 million tonnes of textiles every year.
•  Clothes go to landfill.
Landfill sites pose a threat to local ground water supplies. Every time it rains, water drains through all the rubbish, and picks up chemicals and hazardous materials from whatever is in the landfill site. This includes chemicals used in clothing and textiles such as dyes and bleaches. The water collects at the bottom of the landfill, often in large amounts and can be up to 200 times as toxic as raw sewage.
(http://www.ethicalfashionforum.com/the-issues/recycling)
 

What should we do?



•  Stop shopping and used your full-life-time clothes.
If the clothing is not wearable, convert it into wipes that can be used around the house to clean up spills, wash your car, etc. Take soft clothing or towels and tear them into usable pieces for dust rags. Repurpose your old towels by donating them to an animal shelter or organisation, they could always use fresh towels for their animals to sleep on. If you are handy with a sewing machine, the clothing materials could be re-purposed into items such as cloth bags, hats, mitts, quilts, etc.
By re-using existing fibres and textiles, there is no need to make these textiles from raw materials (such as cotton, wool, and synthetic fibres) This saves on the energy used and pollution caused during manufacturing processes like dying, washing, and scouring.
•  Even if the clothing is un-wearable and you don’t have the time to do anything with it, ask the Charity if they will still accept the item(s). In most cases the charities have agreements with recyclers to accept any clothing items that are un-wearable.
(http://eartheasy.com/blog/2010/05/lets-keep-clothing-out-of-our-landfills/)

Donating clothes to charity:
•  Charity shops collect over 15 million sacks of textiles and other materials from UK households every year.
•  Over 363,000 tonnes of textiles are sent on for reuse and recycling by charity shops every year
•  If each household in the UK donated only one extra black bag of clothing, we could save 25 million bags from ending up in landfill and raise over £740 million for charity.
•  only 2% of materials donated to charity shops end up in landfill
•  Reuse of clothing saves 29kg CO2 per kg of clothing compared to recycling and 33kg CO2 compared to disposal
•  Reduce 3.6 kg of CO2 emissions, 6000 litres of water consumption, 0.3 kg of the use of fertilizers, 0.2kg of the use of pesticides
(http://tilts-head.com/2012/10/17/statistics-uk-recycling-reuse-and-waste-of-clothing/)

But whatever option you choose, it is important to know that there are options. We all live busy lives but with a little effort we as a society have the capacity to divert over 10 million tons of textile waste from the landfills each year! A prime example of how a little effort can go a long way!