| > Paper bags have a worse impact in a very few, small, narrow metrics such as "ocean de-nutrification". Paper bags require more reuse, that's the core finding of the study: https://www2.mst.dk/Udgiv/publications/2018/02/978-87-93614-... > Everyone blurts this out because of a study done in Europe that looked only at a very limited range of environmental factors specifically suited to the country that commissioned the study. I wasn't aware that Denmark is a huge player in the international plastic bag trade, but perhaps I'm just uninformed. > But most plastic bags don't end up mindfully collected, sorted, and incinerated. Actually, they do - at least in the EU. > The plastic bag I (HYPOTHETICALLY) threw out my car window is now several billion flakes of microplastics and the world is struggling with the health ramifications of a century of build-up in the environment. The world doesn't even know yet if microplastics are a serious health problem, but if they are, then we've already reached the point of no return. > For that matter, the glass bottle is now harmless beach glass or sand (or a valuable collectible on ebay-next), and the aluminum beer can is now its 10,000th reincarnation-- having been picked up by a bum and traded in for cash. What about the added weight of the glass bottle requiring more fossil fuel to transport? What about all the energy required to reuse that aluminum? There's good arguments for either of these materials - I don't want to drink my beer out of a plastic bottle - but helping the environment isn't one of them. > My favorite "HOT TAKE" from that study is that "yOu HaVe To ReUsE a ClOtH bAg 500 tImEs" for it to be more efficient (in a very narrow spectrum of categories, remember) like that's an insurmountable hurdle. It's not insurmountable, but people just don't do it. These bags get disgusting after a while. People are throwing them away. Same with "reusable" PET bags. > My made-in-USA cotton totes I got on Amazon for $13.99 in 2010 have been used once a week since I got them. You deserve a burial at Arlington for that. |
Even in “incineration-friendly” countries, less than a quarter of all trash is incinerated.
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php...