There are many different opinions on various reusable bags, paper bags, and plastic shopping bags. Let’s take a look at their raw material production and recycling processes.
Are paper bags more environmentally friendly than plastic bags?
Paper is one of China's four great inventions and an indispensable thing in our lives. Most people know that paper bags are mainly made from trees, and the fibers inside also come from hemp, cotton, rattan, mulberry bark, sandalwood bark, hibiscus, etc. Paper pulp is made from bark, rice straw, wheat straw, bamboo, etc., through mechanical grinding or chemical decomposition of wood. Pulp is a thin layer of decomposed plant fibers suspended in water, picked up with a gauze mesh. The flakes peeled off the gauze are dried and made into paper products, and the water is filtered out. Therefore, the pulping process discharges large amounts of sewage. Various paper products are processed into paper bags through various printing technologies, lamination, UV, oiling, etc. As a result, more than one-third of paper bag products are coated with an adhesive film to enhance water resistance and aesthetics.
Plastic bags are the least environmentally friendly?
Plastic bags were invented by Austrian scientists as early as 1902. After continuous improvement and development, they began to be mass-produced into vest bags in the 1960s. The raw materials of plastic bags are polyethylene (Polyethylene - PE) and polypropylene (Polyolefin - PP), and the main raw materials of polyethylene and polypropylene are petroleum by-products {naphtha}. It is a waste material left over from the production of gasoline; the plastic is melted at high temperatures, extruded and blown through a circular mold to form long tubes, which are then sealed and cut into plastic bags. Durable, strong, low energy consumption and lightweight. Moreover, polyethylene products are waterproof, soft, tough at room temperature, not prone to deterioration, and do not release toxic substances. Because they are a by-product of gasoline production, they are economical and easy to shape, so they are mass-produced and made into plastic bags and daily necessities; polyethylene does not contain benzene and chlorine, and does not produce dioxin when burned. The plastic shopping bags we come into contact with every day today are basically made of polyethylene (PE).
Are reusable bags the most environmentally friendly?
Most of the environmentally friendly bags we commonly call are non-woven bags. Nonwoven bags are made of fiber. The fibers can be scraps of cloth, rayon or synthetic fibers (glue/resin...) containing polypropylene, or PP for short. The difference between non-woven bags and ordinary plastic bags lies in their different production and manufacturing processes. Their basic materials are almost the same as regular plastic bags. Non-woven fabrics are not woven with threads, so they are also called non-woven fabrics. It can be washed with water, processed with a pin rolling machine or carding machine, and then high-pressure formed or bonded to produce various non-woven bags. The application scope of nonwoven fabrics has expanded to various fields such as industry and commerce, civil engineering, medical care, and environmental engineering. Its presence can be seen everywhere.
Recycling and reuse
In the production and recycling process, making a paper bag requires 4 times more energy than making a plastic bag, while making an environmentally friendly bag requires 5-10 times the raw materials. Mills that produce pulp use more water than plastic bags. 50 times; when recycling paper bags and plastic bags of the same weight, the energy required for paper is nine times that of plastic bags, but in fact the recycling rate of paper bags is higher than that of plastic bags, while the recycling of environmentally friendly bags is not common and the cost is higher , coupled with the accessories on the reusable bags such as devil felt zippers, buckles, etc., also increase the difficulty of recycling. The problem is exacerbated by recyclers and paper bags with rubber on the surface, as recyclers are unwilling to recycle and recycle.
In conclusion
In fact, no matter what kind of shopping bag it is, we should choose shopping bags with fewer raw materials to reduce solid waste. For example, they should be thinner and lighter in color (primary colors, white is brighter than dark colors and are environmentally friendly). The design is simple and has fewer accessories. Less pigment ink printing is more environmentally friendly. The most important thing is to choose products with low energy consumption in the production process. It is a good strategy to reuse materials to their full potential or to degrade products. Looking back at the pollution of the entire ecological environment, the pollution of shopping bags may be just the tip of the iceberg. More pollution problems such as plastic bottles, various packaging materials, lunch boxes and containers, electronic computer waste, wheels, construction waste, ship and car exhaust, etc. need to be improved and solved. Regardless of whether reusable bags are environmentally friendly or not, the most important thing is how effective the plastic bag tax will be in the future. This has attracted the attention of the general public because the earth has sounded the alarm. It is urgent to change the consumption mentality and citizen education is the most important.
延伸閱讀
