Paper Bags

Production:

Before the bags can be produced, trees must be cut down. The industry for paper bags is huge and thus negatively impacts the environment. First the trees are found, marked, and felled. This process sometimes involves clear-cutting, which results in habitat destruction and ecological damage.

Next, machinery must come into the forest to remove the logs to be used for the bags, either by logging trucks or helicopters. This machinery also damages the environment because it uses fossil fuels.

What Happens Next?

After the paper bags are used by shoppers, there are a few different options for as to what can happen. First, the bags can be composted if minimally inked. If you compost the bag, the bags break down and go from paper to a rich soil nutrient over a period of a few months.

If you choose to recycle the bags, then the paper has to be re-pulped, which requires a complex chemical process. Then, the fibers are cleaned and screened. They are then washed to remove ink before being pressed and rolled into paper again! Even though recycling is better than throwing the bags away, the production of a paper bag consumes one gallon of water per bag. In addition, the bags are essentially re-created, which uses fossil fuels and energy. Only 20% of paper bags world-wide are actually recycled.

If you choose to throw away the bags, they can stay in landfills for years. The average lifespan in a landfill is 25-50 years. With all the energy and resources wasted on paper bags, reusable bags are the smarter and more eco-friendly choice!

Once the trees are collected (14 million per year!), they must dry at least three years before they can be used. Then, the trees are stipped of bark, which is chipped into one-inch squares and cooked under tremendous heat and pressure. The wood is then put into a chemical mixture that becomes pulp after several hours of cooking. It takes approximately three tons of wood chips to make one ton of pulp. The pulp has to be washed and bleached which requires thousands of gallons of clean water. Finally, the paper bags can be formed.