The Great Debate: Plastic vs. Paper Drinking Straws.
Plastic bags are made from petroleum, a non-renewable oil product. “Plastic is a by- product of oil refining and accounts for four percent of the worlds total oil production” (“Paper vs. Plastic,” par. 16). While four percent might not seem that much, it amounts to twelve million barrels of oil a year.Paper Versus Plastic: Environmental Disadvantages of Each - Paper versus plastic is a hot topic when choosing between plastic bags and paper bags. Get the pros and cons of paper versus plastic bags.The Nitty Gritty. Let’s dish the dirt on each type of bag individually — then we can compare. Paper. According to the previously cited U.K. study, it takes three reuses of a paper bag to neutralize its environmental impact, relative to plastic.A bag’s impact is more than just its associated carbon emissions: Manufacturing a paper bag requires about four times as much water as a plastic bag.
Versus Plastic Bags Every day in this country, people are given the choice of paper or plastic before exiting the supermarket. Although most of those same people would agree that neither is necessarily the best choice, the decision between paper or plastic bags is commonly made without the knowledge of the differences between them.Paper or plastic? It’s a debate that has raged for years about a variety of goods, including grocery bags, food packaging materials, lollipop sticks, personal care items and other single-use products. The latest item to make headlines is the humble straw. Plastic drinking straws are ubiquitous, but they may soon take a backseat to paper.
Although the paper vs. plastic argument probably won’t accomplish much, it’s something to back up all the green rhetoric. Obviously the real answer is for people to take reusable bags with.
