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, we should choose shopping bags with fewer raw materials to reduce solid waste, such as thinner ones and lighter colors (primary colors, white is more environmentally friendly than brighter colors and dark colors)? The design is simple with few accessories and less pigment ink printing. It is more environmentally friendly to choose products with low energy consumption in the production process. The most important thing is to reuse things to their full potential, or degradable products are a good idea. Looking back at the entire ecological environment, the pollution caused by 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 improved. solve. Regardless of whether reusable bags are environmentally friendly or not, how effective will the plastic bag tax be in the future? The most important thing is that this has attracted the attention of the general public, because the earth has sounded the alarm, and it is urgent to change the consumer mentality. Civic education is the most important.
Further reading
Why do we use plastic bags
BBC paper bags are not more environmentally friendly than plastic bags? Are paper bags more environmentally friendly? (in Chinese)
Why do charged plastic bags make pollution worse? Reflections on plastic reduction (in Chinese)
Apart from money and monitoring, what are the reasons behind the promotion of the environmental protection industry? (in Chinese)
BBC – Why paper bags are worse for the planet than plastic? [article has been off the shelf]
對於各種環保袋、紙袋、塑膠購物袋，有許多不同的說法。 讓我們來了解一下他們的原料生產和回收過程。
紙袋比塑膠袋更環保嗎？
紙是中國四大發明之一，是我們生活中不可或缺的東西。 大多數人都知道，紙袋主要由樹木製成，裡面的纖維也來自麻、棉、藤、桑樹皮、檀香樹皮、木槿花等。 紙漿是以樹皮、稻草、麥稈、竹子等為原料，經木材機械磨碎或化學分解而製成的。 紙漿是懸浮在水中的一層薄薄的分解植物纖維，用紗布網拾取。 從紗網上剝下的薄片乾燥後製成紙製品，濾去水分。 因此，製漿過程會排放大量污水。 各種紙製品經過各種印刷技術、覆膜、UV、過油等加工製成紙袋。 因此，超過三分之一的紙袋產品都塗有一層黏合膜，以增強防水性和美觀性。
塑膠袋最不環保？
塑膠袋早在1902年就由奧地利科學家發明，經過不斷改進和發展，在1960年代開始大量生產成背心袋。 塑膠袋的原料是聚乙烯（Polyethylene – PE）和聚丙烯（Polyolefin – PP），而聚乙烯和聚丙烯的主要原料是石油副產品{石腦油}。 它是生產汽油後留下的廢料； 塑膠在高溫下熱熔，透過圓形模具擠壓吹塑，形成長管材，然後密封並分切成塑膠袋。 耐用、強度大、能耗低且重量輕。 而且聚乙烯製品防水、柔軟、常溫下堅韌、不易變質、不釋放有毒物質。 由於它們是汽油生產的副產品，經濟且易於成型，因此被大量生產，製成塑膠袋和日用品； 聚乙烯不含苯和氯，燃燒時不產生戴奧辛。 今天我們日常接觸到的購物塑膠袋基本上都是由聚乙烯（PE）製成的。
環保袋是不是最環保？
我們俗稱的環保袋大部分都是不織布袋。 不織布袋是由纖維製成的。 纖維可以是布屑、人造纖維或合成纖維（膠水/樹脂…），其中含有聚丙烯，簡稱 PP。 不織布袋與普通塑膠袋的不同之處在於其生產製造流程不同。 它們的基本材料與普通塑膠袋幾乎相同。 不織布不是用線編織而成的，所以也稱為不織布。 可用水洗，用針軋機或梳理機加工，然後高壓成型或粘合，生產各種不織布袋。 不織布的應用範圍已拓展至工商業、土木工程、醫療、環境工程等各領域。 它的存在隨處可見。
回收與再利用
在生產回收過程中，製作一個紙袋比製作一個塑膠袋需要4倍的能源，而製作環保袋則需要5-10倍的原料。 生產紙漿的工廠的用水量高於塑膠袋的用水量。 50次； 回收相同重量的紙袋和塑膠袋時，紙張所需的能源是塑膠袋的九倍，但實際上紙袋的回收率高於塑膠袋，而環保袋的回收並不普遍，成本也較高，再加上環保袋上的配件如魔鬼氈拉鍊、扣環等，也增加了回收的難度。 回收商和表面有橡膠的紙袋問題更加嚴重，回收商不願意回收和循環。
結論
其實不論是那一種購物袋，我們應該選擇比較少原料的購物袋，以減少固體廢物，例如薄身一點、淺色一點(原色，白色較鮮色深色環保)？設計簡單少配件，顏料油墨印刷較少，較環保選擇生產過程低消耗能源的產品。最重要是重複使用物盡其用，又或者降解產品是良策。回望整個生態環境，購物袋的污染，或者只是冰山一角，更多的污染問題，如膠樽各類包裝、材料飯盒容具，電子電腦廢物輪呔建築廢料，輪船汽車廢氣等都有待改善和解決。無論環保袋環保與否，將來膠袋稅的成效有多少，最重要是，這已經引起廣大市民的關注，因為地球已亮了警號，刻不容緩，始終改變消費心態，公民教育最緊要。
延伸閱讀
