Paper, Plastic or Canvas Bags?
Verona Environmental Commission 600 Bloomfield Avenue Verona, New Jersey 07044 www.veronaec.org
Which is the most Sustainable Bag? Paper, Plastic or Canvas Bags? • • •
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Plastic bags may take up to 1,000 years to break down! Only 1% of plastic bags are recycled in the United States. There's actually a giant garbage heap made mostly of plastic floating in the ocean. It's estimated that 1 million birds and thousands of other animals die each year after ingesting discarded plastic bags. More than 10% of washed-up debris polluting the U.S. coastline is made up of plastic bags. It takes 12 million barrels of oil to produce the estimated 100 billion plastic bags Americans use each year. The petroleum used to produce 14 plastic bags can drive a car one mile. According to the American Forest and Paper Association, in 1999 the U.S. alone used 10 billion paper grocery bags, which adds up to a lot of trees. To recycle paper bags, the paper must be turned back into pulp by using potentially dangerous chemicals. Manufacturing new plastic from recycled plastic bags requires two-thirds of the energy used to make the original bags. In this country, that is most often energy from coal-burning power plants. Many so-called biodegradable plastic bags are not actually so. They’re recycled plastic mixed with cornstarch. The cornstarch biodegrades and the plastic breaks down into tiny little pieces but does not actually disappear.
Please avoid using paper and plastic bags. Use reusable canvas bags instead!
Which is the most Sustainable Bag? Paper, Plastic or Canvas Bags? • • •
•
•
• • • • •
•
Plastic bags may take up to 1,000 years to break down! Only 1% of plastic bags are recycled in the United States. There's actually a giant garbage heap made mostly of plastic floating in the ocean. It's estimated that 1 million birds and thousands of other animals die each year after ingesting discarded plastic bags. More than 10% of washed-up debris polluting the U.S. coastline is made up of plastic bags. It takes 12 million barrels of oil to produce the estimated 100 billion plastic bags Americans use each year. The petroleum used to produce 14 plastic bags can drive a car one mile. According to the American Forest and Paper Association, in 1999 the U.S. alone used 10 billion paper grocery bags, which adds up to a lot of trees. To recycle paper bags, the paper must be turned back into pulp by using potentially dangerous chemicals. Manufacturing new plastic from recycled plastic bags requires two-thirds of the energy used to make the original bags. In this country, that is most often energy from coal-burning power plants. Many so-called biodegradable plastic bags are not actually so. They’re recycled plastic mixed with cornstarch. The cornstarch biodegrades and the plastic breaks down into tiny little pieces but does not actually disappear.
Please avoid using paper and plastic bags. Use reusable canvas bags instead!
