The history of plastic bags in the United States began in 1979, and by the 1990s, plastic bags had taken over the world. The obvious advantage for retailers was that they were much cheaper than paper bags. Buyers preferred them because durable, weather-resistant plastic proved to be relatively easier to transport. It's no surprise that today plastic is seen as the planet's number one enemy.
Plastic accumulates in landfills, has contaminated rivers, seas and oceans and has even reached our bodies. However, no matter how contradictory it may seem, plastic bags were actually created to save the planet. That's what the son of Swedish engineer Sten Gustaf Thulin, who created them in 1959, says. Plastic bags were developed as an alternative to paper bags, whose production led to the felling of forests. The new alternative proposed greater durability, which meant that they could be used over and over again, many more times than a paper bag could handle.
Disposable plastic bags became popular so quickly, primarily because of their convenience. The foods you used to take home in one or two paper bags can now hold five, ten, or more of the flimsy plastic bags. Plastic bags were patented by a company called Celloplast and, by the mid-1960s, they were already actively replacing paper alternatives and fabric in Europe. Single-use plastic bags began to appear almost immediately in grocery stores across the United States.
Currently, most plastic bags are not recycled and end up in landfills or pollute the environment, where they take up to 1000 years to degrade. Single-use plastics are plastics that are designed to be used only once or for a very short period of time, and then discarded. Using studies that indicate that plastic bags are better for the environment than paper or cloth is fake. During the 1980s, single-use plastic bags received more criticism than just suburban mothers irritated by food slipping into the trunks of their cars.
However, according to experts, alternatives to plastic bags are not necessarily more environmentally friendly. In 1982, two of the country's largest grocery chains, Safeway and Kroger, began offering single-use plastic bags to their customers. If consumers throw leftover plastic bags in the trash, they end up in a landfill practically forever. Despite customer preference, retailers preferred single-use plastic bags because of their lower price.
In the early 1980s, two of the largest grocery chains in the U.S. In the US, Kroger and Safeway switched to using plastic bags. However, one of the biggest problems is that most plastic bags are not recycled and end up in landfills, where they take up to 1000 years to degrade. Plastic bags have acquired a dominant position due to the need for a cheap and useful way to transport goods.
This is because the production of paper bags requires more energy and water, and they are also heavier than plastic bags, making them more expensive to transport.
