63 Research-Supported Argument 1 – “Paper or Plastic? Neither.”
Aubrey Hewitt
Paper or Plastic? Neither.
It has become increasingly obvious over the years that the world has a plastic problem. There is plastic floating in the ocean, layering the ground, and even drifting through the sky. These plastics are polluting the environment, essentially destroying habitats for an abundance of animals and humans. This pollution is often blamed on the retail plastic bag. Plastic bags are commonly used and easily spotted among the litter. It is no wonder these bags have earned a poor reputation. Plastic bags contribute to environmental problems, yet some believe plastic bags should remain a common practice in American stores.
After all, the typical single-use plastic bag may not be the biggest contributor to plastic pollution. There is no actual way to find how much of the litter is a particular type of trash; however, many of the statistics out there are found using unreliable methods. For example, the California Coastal Commission said plastic bags were making up 3.8-8 percent of the litter on beaches, but this data was “collected by volunteers on one day each year, and is not a scientific assessment” (qtd. in Mangu-Ward). More reliable numbers come in the form of “the 2009 Keep America Beautiful Survey… [which] shows that all plastic bags, of which plastic retail bags are only a subset, are just 0.6 percent of visible litter nationwide” (Mangu-Ward). Of course, these numbers are still up for discussion, but it is clear that plastic bags only make up a small portion of litter.
These people also argue that, as unlikely as it seems, reusable or alternative grocery bags may leave a bigger environmental footprint in production than the average plastic bag. While it takes resources to make anything, the free plastic bags in stores take less to make than a paper bag, a plastic reusable bag, and a cotton tote bag. To offset the environmental impact of each of these types of bags, they must be used and re-used quite a lot. Take paper bags and plastic reusable bags, for example: they have to be used between thirty-four and eighty-four times before their impact cancels out to the same as a traditional plastic bag (Funk). Unsurprisingly, cotton bags are worse. They must be used at least 7,100 times to offset their impact (Funk). If the cotton is organic, then the number shoots up to 20,000 re-uses (Funk). While reusable bags have their appeal, they may not be the best option for many people. If they are not used enough, they are not worthy competitors to the plastic bag in terms of their production’s impact on the environment.
All in all, plastic bags may not be the Earth’s arch-nemesis like previously thought. They serve their purpose as the strongest, thinnest, and cheapest option at the supermarket (Mangu-Ward). When choosing between paper and plastic, the latter may seem the best at face value; however, how they are used after leaving the store is the big issue. Plastic bags may make up a small portion of the planet’s pollution, but they are still polluting it. In the same way, plastic bags may take less from the environment to make, but they remain to be the worst option for the environment when they are no longer in service. When examining the long-lasting effects of plastic bags on the environment, I believe they should be banned from use in stores.
For starters, plastic bags do not really decompose once discarded. Plastics are known to be extremely difficult to get rid of once they are made. Once discarded, they “degrade at a very slow pace in any given environment” (Akan). In addition, what does degrade often produces toxic remains (Akan). This is alarming when “more than 380 billion plastic bags are used in the U.S. each year” (Bednar 22). On top of all of this, most of these bags either cannot be recycled through traditional means or will not even be considered for recycling by their consumers (Funk). This means nearly every single one of those billions of bags still exist either in use, in landfills, or in the large amount of trash that litters Earth. That is a lot of harmful material to leave sitting on the planet. There is no way to win here. All these bags are being made for single-use purposes, and there is no way to truly dispose of them. On the other hand, reusable bags are designed for prolonged use, so they remain useful longer than normal plastic bags. This creates less demand for bags, so they will make fewer bags in the first place– meaning they take less from the environment. Then, once these bags are used beyond repair, the environmentally friendly materials would not be nearly as bad going back into the environment. But there are still more issues with plastic bags beyond their poor decomposition.
In addition to taking a long time to decay, plastic bags pose a great threat to life. With the sheer amount of plastic waste in the environment, it is no surprise that it is affecting animals. There are many ways these bags can be harmful. For example, plastic bags can be responsible for “choking the animal,” “artificially filling the stomach so that the animal cannot consume food,” “infecting them with harmful toxins,” and “entangling the animal, leading to choking, cuts, and even restricting growth” (“About the Bag…”). They are also seen smothering coral and plants they become entangled with (“About the Bag…”). Not only do these plastic bags harm wildlife, but they are also dangerous to humans. Plastic bags are the culprit of many accidental suffocations. Because of their nature, plastic bags can easily become trapped over the nose and mouth of children. Unfortunately, a lot of these incidents lead to death. Out of 471 child suffocation cases observed in California, 109 cases, or twenty-three percent of them were caused by plastic bags (Kraus 234). This is a sad reality: one of the most used conveniences of modern life is so heavily connected with death, not only of ecosystems and of wildlife but of children, too. If plastic bags were not so commonplace in American homes, deaths like these would not be either.
Now, it is impractical to assume everyone can switch to reusable bags, but there was a time before plastic bags and there will be a time after them. The good news is– reusable bags can be anything. Any bag can carry groceries and other goods, not just the ones being sold at supermarket registers. In fact, to ensure the problem is truly solved, people should use the bags they already have or buy bags second-hand (Funk). There is no point in buying new ones when there are already so many bags in the world. Beyond bags, there are so many things out there that can carry things out of stores. Boxes, buckets, and baskets are just a few examples of the many household items that can be used instead of single-use plastic bags. One last solution is to simply say no to a bag. If the purchase is only a few items, then they can be carried in hand rather than wasting a plastic bag. There are many ways to substitute plastic bags if banned.
Regardless of whether plastic bags are bad, one thing is for certain: a cleaner Earth is a good thing. There are no downsides to being a more environmentally conscious person. At the end of the day, any effort made to make the world a better place makes the world a better place. After all, if preventing all plastics will not save the world, at least some plastics were prevented. There are no outright bad reasons to be good to the Earth. Even if one day everything that is known about plastic’s influence on the environment is proven to be false, at least the world became a cleaner place all the while. Banning plastic bags can finally be the beginning of a clean plastic-free planet once again.
Works Cited
“About the Bag – Environmental Impacts.” CleanLA, Los Angeles County Department of Public Works, 2013, https://dpw.lacounty.gov/epd/aboutthebag/EnvironmentalImpacts.aspx. Accessed 25 Oct. 2021.
Akan, Otobong Donald, et al. “Plastic Waste: Status, Degradation and Microbial Management Options for Africa.” Journal of Environmental Management, vol. 292, Aug. 2021. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.112758.
Bednar, Joseph. “A Change at the Checkout: Why Single-Use Plastic Bags Are Increasingly on Their Way Out.” BusinessWest, vol. 36, no. 2, May 2019, pp. 22–23. EBSCOhost, search-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.cameron.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=rps&AN=136584576&site=ehost-live.
Funk, Anna. “It’s Not That Easy Being Green.” Discover, vol. 41, no. 3, May 2020. EBSCOhost, search-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.cameron.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=142241566&site=ehost-live.
Kraus, Jess. “Effectiveness of Measures to Prevent Unintentional Deaths of Infants and Children from Suffocation and Strangulation.” Public Health Reports, vol. 100, no. 2, Mar. 1985, pp. 231–240. https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-4375(86)90019-8.
Mangu-Ward, Katherine. “Plastic Bags Are Good for You.” Reason, vol. 47, no. 5, Oct. 2015. EBSCOhost, search-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.cameron.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f5h&AN=109197123&site=ehost-live.
