Lightweight and durable, compostable polyethylene bags are ideal for sustainable fashion brands, organic products, baked goods, e-commerce and more. Many grocery stores have bag recycling programs, so check with your local store to see if they accept bags for recycling. One of the main advantages of plastic bags is that, compared to other types of shopping bags, producing them has the lowest environmental impact. Thin plastic grocery store bags are usually made of high-density polyethylene (HDPE).).
Although the production of these bags uses resources such as oil, it produces less carbon emissions, waste and harmful by-products than the production of cotton or paper bags. Plastic bags are also relatively sturdy and reusable. Many of the studies on the different packaging options that show that the production of plastic bags requires fewer resources assume that plastic bags are used at least twice when arriving home and once as a garbage bag, and they take this fact into account when calculating which bags are more sustainable. In addition to filling landfills and turning into something horrible, plastic bags that become garbage endanger many facets of the environment, including marine life and the food chain.
The first type was made of high-density polyethylene, the standard plastic found in grocery store bags. This is because plastic bags, like all plastic materials, eventually break into microscopic pieces, which scientists refer to as microplastics. Recycling plastic bags is a difficult task; they fly around the recycling plant and get stuck in the machinery. In a study published this week in Environmental Science and Technology, researchers placed supposedly environmentally friendly bags made from various organic and plastic materials and sourced from U.Made from a more durable type of plastic, these bags must be reused about eleven times to reach the point of balance with the impact of conventional plastic.
Even standard plastic bags can't be recycled from the household recycling bin, so most end up in a landfill or are swept away by water or wind and become garbage. Biodegradable bags are deposited in landfills or, in some cases, are recycled to obtain new plastics, at least in theory. In general, biodegradable plastics cannot be recycled with other plastics; in fact, they can ruin other batches of recyclable plastic and degrade the product until it remains unusable. Three years after the researchers' plastic bags were buried or submerged, they were almost as useful and harmful as the day they were manufactured.
Although these bags will take less time to decompose than traditional plastic bags, when converted to garbage they would still have enough time to become a potentially deadly food for ocean animals, such as seabirds, whales, turtles or fish. In addition to varying greatly in terms of their compatibility with the environment, there is the possibility that reusable bags will not be used, as consumers should remember to take them with them to the store. Regardless of whether the bag is made of plastic, paper or another material, the most sustainable option is the bag you already have. To have a comparable environmental footprint (encompassing climate change and other environmental effects) to that of plastic bags, a cotton bag may have to be used thousands of times.
