Should the world stop making plastic bags?

Question

I want to know your opinions on it i think they should stop making them its crazy because they cant be recyled they should go back to making paper bags or just have the resuable ones that they are selling everywhere.Anyways let me know what you think.

Answer 1

yes because they are harmful 2 the environment and why cant you use those going green  bags

Answer 2

actually... plastic grocery bags are 100% recycleable.  In point of fact, any thermoplastic (melts when it gets hot) is 100% recycleable.

In fact, it's easier to recycle a plastic bag than it is a paper one.  Just shred it up, put it into a plastic processing machine of some kind (extruder, injection molder, etc...) and away you go.  We all think of recycling aluminum cans... did you know it takes 1000 times more energy to recycle an aluminum can than it does the same amount of a thermoplastic??

Most plastic bags are made of low density polyethelyne (LDPE), look around and you'll see this stuff everywhere.  So no, if you want to do something about it... ban paper bags, and mandate the recycling of plastics.  Everything from the case of your monitor, to grocery bags, to plastic silverware... it's all 100% recycleable.

Sure, there is some marginal loss in mechanical properties.  So use it in a place where that doesn't matter, or invest a bit more energy and make it into a new polymer chain.  Amazing stuff plastic.

If you doubt what I'm saying here... I can tell you from experience that this is true.  I personally have taken finished products made from the same material as grocery bags, though not bags themselves for various reasons, and ground them up and reused them.  In some cases, we reused them 10 times.  It was all an experiment for a polymer class, but the point remains the same.  It can be done, and is done everyday!

Answer 3

China is going to ban plastic bags in supermarket starting June this year. Hope it will stick.

Answer 4

Sorry for the redundance but people keep asking similar or same questions.

We now have bioplastics, but it is a fairly new development.  Plastics can be made from plant matter.  Most of them have equal properties or even better in some cases to petroleum based plastics.  The biggest company in the U.S. involved in bioplastics is Metabolix.   at:

http://www.metabolix.com/

Their plastics are actually compostable.

It's a growing new industry with several big corporations interested.

Answer 5

Yeah seriously, why can't people just use a big tote bag and bring it to the grocery store with them?

When we do get plastic bags, we reuse them til they rip, then recycle them.  There's gotta be a better way though.

Answer 6

Our grocery store uses plastic bags made from recycled plastic bags.  I

Answer 7

Use of plastic bag derived from petroleum should be banned like what San Francisco did.  But using biodegradable plastic bags will increase farmers income.  Also, the use of paper bags will only increase consumption of woods which comes from trees that converts CO2 to oxygen which could greatly effect the ecology of our planet.  It will also create land slides, soil erosion, and flash floods. Therefore, the use of paper bags is not the answer.  Please see links below for the answer to this question.



http://www.packagingknowledge.com/degrad...

http://www.mec.ca/Main/content_text.jsp?...

http://www.biogroupusa.com/biodegradable...

Alvin

Answer 8

Plastic bags kill more animals and increase global warming more than paper bags. Since we are the dominant species on this planet it is our duty to dispose of all those lesser creatures. I think it is our evolutionary purpose to create more plastic bags and muck up the environment.

Answer 9

I wish they can stop this.I don't use plastic bags anymore I use environmentally friendly bags now.It's 100% recycled my bag and cheap too.