Many individuals have the wrong notion that paper bags are better than plastic bags for the environment. But paper bag production is still harmful to the environment in some ways, so using reusable bags a.k.a. eco-bag, over plastic or paper bags, can save on money, resources and have positive effects on the environment as well.
THREE years ago when I began doing the grocery run all by myself, I also started using what we called the “eco bag”. I can’t help it. Supermarkets had stopped loading grocery items in plastic bags after city governments in Metro Manila began banning its use, and food outlets had to comply.
Every time I reached the cash register, the lady sitting in front of the machine would ask, as if to remind me:
“May eco-bag po kayo Sir?” And my surprising answer was, “wala po…”
So, whenever I did my once-in-a-blue-moon grocery gig, I saw to it that I carried an eco-bag to save on P10 that I would pay for one to carry my foodstuff home.
Recycling mode
For quite some time now, I have been using the same eco-bag that I had first used to carry goodies, whether they were groceries or fresh foods such as fish, veggies, or meat.
What do I try to say here? That for that length of time using an eco-bag, I have been using the same stuff, which simply says I was into a recycling mode – the very reason why eco-bags were invented- to be reused over and over again.
And whenever an eco-bag is recycled a thousand times in a day for 360 days a year, many trees are spared from being chopped down to become paper bags later.
But still many eco-bag using Pinoys are not aware of this little secret. What they simply know is that they can save a few pesos each time whenever they reuse that humble eco-bag stashed in a corner at home.
They kept one in the trunks of their cars so that they have something to use when they suddenly remember to pick up some dinner-cooking stuff at the supermarket.
But while many Metro Manilans remain ignorant of what their re-used shopping eco-bags can do to save the environment, numbers are blinking as a warning sign to show us how the ecology has been struggling against the simple tool of convenience in our modern civilization.
Grim numbers
Available statistics reveal that individuals in the US use approximately 10 billion paper bags every year, equating to 14 million trees being cut down each year.
The NBC has reported so.
In Metro Manila, the number of paper bag (or the plain “supot”) users increase as they continue to be an option in grocery stores, and many consumers prefer to use them out of convenience.
However, almost all the big supermarkets now have refused to issue brown paper bags and plastic bags in pain of stiff penalties that a violation of the city ordinance would call.
They have now produced their eco-bags, with their company logo printed in them, and sold for P10 apiece.
The most common types of eco-bags available are those of non-woven bags, katcha bags, sack bags, and jute bags.
Designers have designed them fashionably to encourage shoppers to use them not only once but always.
Floating trash
The EcoWaste Coalition and Greenpeace Southeast Asia in 2006 made a study revealing that 76 percent of the floating trash in Manila Bay was mostly synthetic plastic materials, with plastic bags comprising 51 percent, sachets and junk food wrappers 19 percent, Styrofoams 5 percent, and hard plastics 1 percent.
The rest was rubber 10 percent and biodegradable discards 13 percent.
While the study was done about six years ago, the situation in Manila Bay today has not transformed.
The occasional clean-up of the Manila Bay waters continuously yielded debris that the Greenpeace study revealed.
The city government of Manila has been trying to keep up with the volume of debris, especially after every typhoon that would hit the city.
Waste analysis and characterization survey published by the Asian Development Bank in 2003 showed that plastics make up 25 percent of Metro Manila’s solid waste, food and other organics 50 percent, paper 12 percent, metals 5 percent, glass 3% percent, special/hazardous 1 percent and residuals 4 percent.
“Countries all over the world have taken notice of the plastic bag problem, with China enforcing a tough restriction on the use of non-reusable plastic bags.”
Of late, many individuals just assume paper bags are better than plastic bags for the environment. But paper bag production is still harmful to the environment in some ways.
Eco bags are better
For instance, paper bags produce 70 more air pollutants than do plastic bags and generate 50 times more water pollutants than do plastic bags, so they can never be better than plastic bags as some pro-paper bags assert.
So paper, and more so paper bags, still do a great deal of damage to the planet, and each time people grab bags at the grocery store, they are contributing to this damage.
According to Douglas Lober, an American environmentalist, using reusable bags a.k.a. eco-bag, over plastic or paper bags, can save on money, resources and have positive effects on the environment as well.
Simply said, conventional paper and plastic bags aren’t healthy for the environment while uses of eco-bags are enormous. For instance,
1.They’re cost-effective: You can use reusable cloth bags for years and never have to toss them away (as I have experienced myself). If they become dirty, you simply throw them in the washing machine and keep on using them.
2.They’re strong: You can use them for many years (my red eco-bag, courtesy of SM is three years old). They also carry much more weight than plastic bags. This true. My eco-bag carries P1,000-worth of goodies each time, whose handles I simply anchor onto my right shoulder.
3.They save resources: Plastic bags use natural gas and crude oil to manufacture, they’re non-biodegradable and they require even more fossil fuel to ship. When you use a reusable bag, you’re not just decreasing the amount of non-renewable resources needed for producing plastic bags, but you’re also decreasing the amount of money it costs each year for your community to clean them up.
4.They’re reliable and durable: Unlike flimsy plastic bags, reusable bags are durable and you can carry a lot more at one time. Fill them right up — they won’t break. This means you’ll make fewer trips from your car and back and can carry more at a time comfortably.
So, with all the good points an eco-bag has against the paper bags and plastic bags, I stashed apiece in every drawer I’ve got in the house.
That way, I don’t have to look around the house for one to use. I’ve got one in my favorite shoulder bag, just in case I suddenly got an urge to check what is there to bring home from the shelves of my favorite supermarket.
Tags: #environment, #ecology, #recycling, #paperbags, #wastemanagement