Paper+or+Plastic?

Lauren Meyer

Paper or Plastic?



Paper or Plastic, a question you have been asked hundreds of times in supermarkets and box stores across America. This question is not only based on personal preference, but the impact they both have on the environment. A survey was conducted among 40 students of Hopewell Valley Central High School. 60% said that they preferred paper and 40% use plastic, the main reason was because paper biodegrades. But is one really better than the other?

Paper bags are close to extinction. Most box stores, such as Target and Wal-Mart, provide //only// plastic bags for shoppers. These stores have convenient stations for filling plastic bags along each register. In contrast, natural food-based stores, such as Trader Joe's and Whole Foods, refuse to provide plastic bags-only paper. A.C. Gallo, Whole Foods co-president said in an interview with USA Today "it's central to our core values of caring for communities and the environment."

Paper is preferred by the students of Hopewell Valley because it “can decompose and it won’t exist in a landfill for years,” says senior, Julia Snyder. But it is still made in a factory like plastic. Most paper bags are made of “virgin” wood because it is stronger than recycled paper material. According to earth911.com “Each year, Americans use about 10 billion paper bags, which results in the cutting down of 14 million trees.” Trees are being cut down at a rapid pace to supply enough for the demand of plastics “ecofriendly alternative”, contributing to deforestation.

Once the trees have been chopped down, the wood still has to be converted into pulp, bleached, dyed, and then formed. It’s no surprise that paper is creates 70% more air pollution and 50% more water pollution than plastic bags.

Bags made out of recycled paper are better for the environment because no trees have to be cut down, the pulp is already processed, and paper can be recycled up to seven times. Paper bags are usually larger than plastic, allowing customers to use fewer bags. Plastic bags are made with significantly fewer materials than paper, and machines are able to create plastic bags faster than paper.

“98 percent more energy is used to recycle paper vs. plastic bags.”

Plastic is 100% non-biodegradable because it’s made of Petroleum. Toxins from the bags release harmful chemicals that seep into the water, air, and soil, poisoning the animals and organisms that eat and drink from these sources. Small particles of plastic (polymers) been found in the stomachs of birds and fish, because they initially think it's food.

In some areas, plastic to sea life ratios are now 6:1, and to make things worse, in the Pacific Ocean there is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. A vertex, twice the size of Texas, containing 3.5 million tons of trash, resulting from plastic bags and other plastic debris that has been dumped into the ocean.

 Nearly all plastic, ever made, still exists in our environment in some form. Although there are outlets to recycle bags in some grocery stores, many households are unaware about them and that plastic bags are recyclable at all. According to envirosax.com, Americans use 380 billion plastic bags every year, while only 2% are recycled. In order to protect our oceans and dwindling environment Americans must rapidly decrease their consumption of plastic bags, or better yet use reusable bags instead.

Our society has become obsessed with plastic. According to environmental activist, Charles Moore, two million plastic are used every five minutes in the United States. To change this, states like California and Oregon are debating about banning plastic bags from being distributed in all stores in the given state.

Instead, large and small companies are encouraging consumers to buy canvas bags. These bags are brought to stores by shoppers and are used as a replacement to paper and plastic shopping bags. This prevents the pollution, waste, chemicals, and labor that it takes to produce paper and plastic bags. To encourage this new trend stores such as Target and Shoprite offer five cents (per bag) off of your purchase.