What is the big deal when it comes to disposable shopping bags? Over the last several years, you may have heard in the news about problems associated with the usage of paper and plastic grocery bags. So the question is why? Why should you go out of your way to avoid using disposables, and start using eco friendly reusable or recycled bags? Before diving into any trend or cause, it is essential to be familiar with exactly how your actions can make a positive impact on the environment and our world. In this article, we will go over some key environmental concerns and problems linked with disposable shopping bag usage.

The Environmental Literacy Council does a great job of explaining the negative effects of both plastic and paper disposable bags at EnviroLiteracy.Org. We will start with the environmental impact of manufacturing plastic and paper bags from production to delivery. Plastic bags are manufactured using oil, and so the environmental consequences of production includes all things from retrieving the oil, to the separation of products in the oil refinement process, to the plastic fabrication process, and the energy exploited and emissions created to distribute the bags to retailers. So the truth of the matter is that the production of plastic bags (as a result of and by our demand as consumers) is a contributive factor to our addiction to oil. Paper bags, are of course produced from trees and lead to worldwide deforestation and reduction of life habitats all over the earth. Moreover, the quantity of energy exploited to assemble and circulate paper bags and the carbon emissions created is worse than that of plastic bags. The reality is that neither paper nor plastic bags are a healthy product for our environment, especially compared to eco friendly recycled grocery bags.

Of course, as you likely know, another chief problem with disposable bags is the extensive pollution and litter issue, in particular, associated with plastic bags. Plastic bags have evolved to become the “modern tumbleweed”. They show up everywhere and often end up in swamps, streams, rivers, lakes and in the sea. While researching this piece I came across some shocking data at 5gyres.Org, which teaches people about the 5 gyres in our earth’s oceans. Here’s an example from their site: “At sea floating plastics are swept up into slow moving currents. These currents are called ‘gyres’. Our Oceans are dynamic systems…. made up of complex networks of currents… Large systems of these currents, coupled with wind and the earth’s rotation, create ‘gyres’, massive, slow rotating whirlpools in which plastic trash can accumulate.” The most famous of these is the North Pacific Gyre, which has also been called the “great pacific garbage patch”, has been researched the most and is an accumulation of trash and plastic estimated by many to be twice the size of Texas.

What many folks fail to understand is that there are really 5 gyres distributed throughout our world’s oceans where rubbish, and mainly plastic is accumulating at a fast rate. One of the scariest parts about all this is that nautical mammals often ingest this waste floating in the sea and suffocate or starve to death as a result. By using reusable green shopping bags, as opposed to disposable bags, our daily human actions lend to the solution rather than the problem.

The environmental predicament our earth finds itself in nowadays demands that we take prompt action. As you can plainly observe, the broad use of plastic and paper shopping bags contributes to serious environmental problems that are not going away. We must alter our individual habits by reminding ourselves to use reusable eco shopping bags whenever we can. By taking a stand and opposing the widespread waste and litter problem caused by plastic and paper shopping bags, we are creating a healthier habitat one choice at a time.

Albert Jefferson is a highly experienced author conversing about green and sustainability dilemmas and spreading the idea to companies to give out eco reusable shopping bags to promote both their trade name and support for the environment.