Plastic bags have low impact on environment: study
A STUDY by the Danish Environmental Protection Agency suggests that plastic bags could, contrary to popular belief, be kinder to the environment than many other reusable bags such as cotton or cloth bags.
The study found cotton bags had the worst impact on the environment, and would have to be reused at least 149 times to make up for the negative production methods used to produce them.
The study also found that the plastic bags at retailers had the lowest impact on the environment, and should ideally be used as garbage bags rather than being disposed directly as waste.
According to Tim Stewart, group executive for packaging at Novus Holdings, alternative bags were not better for the environment than plastic.
“This is because the entire production cycle isn’t taken into account when people assume that cotton bags are better for the environment. For example, it can take more than 20 000 litres of water to produce 1kg of cotton,” Stewart said.
He added that according to research, South Africans used about eight billion bags annually and that plastic would not be going anywhere any time soon.
“Less than 1% of five million single-use plastic bags are properly recycled, which is why single-use plastic is threatening the environment. It is up to us to use plastic bags responsibly rather than discarding them where they will end up as pollution.
“Using a plastic bag as a bin liner is one way that will allow it to enter the waste stream, where retrieved by recyclers.”
Ivo Vegter, author of Extreme Environment, a book on environmental alarmism and how it harms emerging economies, echoes these claims. it is easily
He says, historically, plastic bags replaced paper bags in supermarkets because they were more hygienic and prevented bacterial contamination from meat liquids, which would soak through paper bags.