Harmful Effects From the Manufacture of Paper Bags

Many of us get our groceries packed into paper bags at the store without much thought. However, the production, manufacture and distribution of paper grocery bags has very harmful effects to the environment. Reuseit.com estimates that Americans use at least 10 billion paper bags each year, which can have a devastating impact on our planet.

Cutting Down Trees

• Paper bags are made from paper, and paper is made from trees. Therefore a huge amount of trees need to be felled in order to create the huge amounts of paper bags used across America. Felling trees for paper is a big cause of deforestation, which destroys natural habitats and can also ruin the nutrients in the soil. It is estimated 14 million trees are cut down in a year to make paper bags.

Pollution and Global Warming

• Most paper is made by heating wood chips mixed with chemicals at a high temperature. These chemicals produce acid rain, and also get into the water system and make their way into the food chain. This is harmful to the surrounding environment and wildlife. Paper bags are also much heavier and take up more room than plastic bags. This means transporting them from paper mills across the country, which uses a lot of fuel and creates lots of pollution from car exhaust.

Recycling and Landfills

• Very few people recycle their paper bags, so the bags often end up in the landfill. In fact, over half of landfills are made up of paper that wasn't recycled. Modern landfills don't allow the rubbish to biodegrade to prevent contamination. This means thousands of tons of paper each year are just left wasted in landfills. Even if paper bags are recycled, it takes much less energy to recycle a plastic bag, making paper bags a bad choice environmentally.

What You Can Do

• There is much you can do to help prevent the harmful effects of paper bag manufacture. The most direct way to help is to stop fueling the need for these bags. Try taking the same grocery bags to the store with you and using them again and again. It is easy to keep them in the trunk of your car so you don't forget. It is also worth talking to your local store manager to check if their paper bags come from sustainably managed forests. If not, you could ask them to consider switching to a greener supplier.