Can someone explain to me why plastic grocery bags are bad for the environment?

Question

trucks can haul 100 times more plastic bags than paper bags in one load

paper bags kill trees

why are garbage bags ok and plastic store bags bad?

Answer 1

They are bad for the environment because animals could eat them and then they could choke and die.

Answer 2

i agree with the first answerer. the plastic bag is more harmful because it takes a generation or more before it decays. also, paper bags can be recycled. the answerer is also right that it must be bags made from cloth that must be used because it is made from other plenty sources, unlike paper bags which is from diminishing sources and unlike plastic bags which are so hard to dispose.

get my point?

have a nice day!

Answer 3

They are bad because they don't degrade.

If they are dropped in the sea turtles or dolphins can be choked, or they may try to eat them thinking it is a jellyfish.

Also if dropped on the floor, bags can choke small animals and small children. They also don't look good littering the ground.

Answer 4

I was just watching the show Frontline on PBS about plastic pollution, and was horrified about all the wildlife being killed because of the extensive plastic garbage floating in the oceans.  Plastic garbage bags take 1,000+ years to degrade in landfills.  Paper bags are not really a very good option either.  The best plan is to use cloth bags that can be used over and over again.

Answer 5

the negative side relates to how the life cycle of the bags work

very few are recycled, which means most are either put into municipal waste (ie trash) and they don't degrade for eons, so they stuff landfills.

those that don't get recycled or safely into the trash end up as debris roaming the streets and land. the bags are paticularly good at clogging sewer drains, choking animals, becoming dangerous food for animals and water life. think about when you've see trash strewn about a ditch or similar, you don't see wads of paper grocery sacks as they breakdown quickly whereas the plastic bags and oil types of materials seem to never go away.

also there is some psycology of the low cost of a plastic bag and the convenience of it in that we use a lot more bags than we normally would, so we create a lot more pollution.

plastic bags comes from oil

Answer 6

paper is better

Answer 7

I guess..it's because garbage bags are recyclable and the plastic bags are not. Plastic bags are made by burning the plastic which is harmful for the ozone layer. The garbage bags are made differently in a way that they won't be harmful to the ozone layer.

Answer 8

While I agree that both are bad for their own reasons (we should use cloth bags for shopping), at least paper bags are made from a renewable resource.  Plastic bags take decades to degrade, and clog our landfills and waterways.

Answer 9

Paper or Plastic?

The energy and other environmental impacts embodied in a plastic grocery bag is somewhat less than in a paper grocery bag. But paper is easier to recycle, being accepted in most recycling programs. The recycling rate for plastic bags is very low.

So, which is better for the environment? Neither! The fact is that the difference between paper and plastic RECYCLING is small compared with the REUSING bags.

http://www.sierraclub.org/bags/

Answer 10

plastic bags dose no get decompose in soil & make da soil non fartile ...which promotes in non agriculture land