If thinking about how you are planning on carrying 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 forever. It would be wonderful if these things were taken into account before you answer that all important question, “paper or plastic?”

In today’s world we need to be cognizant that every action we take can (and often does) have a tremendous impact on the earth. When we run out to a restaurant for Carryout food, the amount of trash left behind is enormous. Think about the Styrofoam container the food comes in as well as the plastic silverware paper napkins, cups, straws and bag. All of these items must go somewhere and often it is into the trash, on its way to a landfill far from your home. After that we rarely ponder its effect.

The bags, sacks and containers have a lasting consequence on the earth. Well over a billion single-use plastic bags are given out each day. There are consequences for the short-lived handiness of unlimited, free, single-use plastic bags. To observe the real costs, we must look at the multiple 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, small plastic particles can create threats to sea life and contaminate the food supply for all mammals. Collection, hauling and disposal of plastic bag waste create another environmental issue. Almost 8 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. It has been noted that when incinerated, plastic bags cause air pollution.

Paper bags are now thought to be a better choice. Their negative consequence 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. Often 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 conventional plastic bag, but since paper is recycled at an elevated rate, saving space in landfills is not much of a concern.

What should we do then when taking our shopping home? 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 carry a cloth bag with you everywhere. This way you will be ready when asked “paper or plastic?” Your answer will be “neither, I brought my own bag, thank you.” And the world will thank you in return.

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