Benefits of using Plastic Carrier Bags

With all the talks about plastics being bad for the environment, it’s also easy to overlook the benefits that they offer. Though the ecological drawbacks are true, the use of plastics can also be beneficial for consumers, retailers and even the environment. At present, more than 500 billion plastic bags are produced every year. That’s a lot of bags but compared to paper bags (a supposedly environment friendly counterpart), they also help save so much. Recycled and reused in the right ways, plastic bags can be a huge advantage to the environment. After all, paper bags come when you put down a tree and that isn’t too environment friendly either!

Here are the advantages we enjoy with plastic carrier bags:

• Packaging / shipping

Plastic carrier bags are probably the lightest option when it comes to packing goods. With alternatives, you will always rely on bulky cardboard boxes, envelopes and other wasteful means. Further, plastics for packaging come in several thicknesses and densities and are also more permeable and durable than paper counterparts. Being waterproof and chemically resistant adds to the advantage. These in turn also keep the packaging/shipping costs down and have been the prime reason why manufacturers have favored them so long. Lastly, plastic bags are lighter and are easily stored in compact rolls which are not the case with cardboards of other paper/organic alternatives.

• Recyclable

One of the biggest advantages with plastic bags is their ability to be recycled. The carbon footprint that one use of a plastic carrier bag generates is three times the use of a similar sized paper bag. However, we seem to ignore the fact that the same plastic bag can be used multiple times while a paper bag is mostly for single use – thus turning the tables. Secondly, plastic bags use a lot less energy to be produced than paper counterparts, making them a logical choice. If you have experienced your paper bag takeaway bottoming out, you might as well know the advantages with plastic carrier bags.

Another popularly presented alternative to plastic bags are cotton/jute carrier bags. However, did you even think how much more energy it would consume to produce one cotton/jute bag? Also take into consideration the energy that would be used in regularly washing, cleaning and drying a cotton bag. If you could use the same plastic bags for far less number of trips to the market, you would have saved the environment much more!

• Cheaper

Compared to any kind of alternative, a plastic bag is cheaper to manufacture and use. This has also been the reason why they have become so popular across the globe, even in remote places, as a means of packaging and carriage.

• Transparent

A strategic advantage of plastic carrier bag is its translucent property. You always know and see what you are carrying inside. In the retail market, especially with local shops, this is a huge advantage. In some case, you can judge the quality of a product just by seeing it. With other alternatives, you would have to tear open the packet to know that you were sold a rotten or broken product.

The only thing that we, as consumers and seller shave to ensure is that plastic carrier bags have to be used judiciously. The problem arises when we don’t follow proper disposal methods with plastic bags. It is then it becomes a hazard to the environment. As long as we care to reuse and recycle our plastic bags, it would be the most convenient and logical choice.

Our Environment and Plastic Bags

A plastic bag or plastic pouch is used for packaging purpose for many different purposes. Nowadays the use of plastic bags is increasing day by day. This is due to them being less costly, easy to carry, light in weight and able to hold liquid, solid and gels. Plastic can even be used to create closed system which helps in keeping food fresh for long periods of time. 

Plastic bags are reusable and can be used again and again, which also keeps them being a non biodegradable substance. Plastic is globally consumed on a very large scale but after some year’s people are starting to notice some big issues associated with plastic bags. These issues are as follows…

Garbage: Plastic bags are cheap and so easy to use-n-throw which results in a large percentage of garbage belonging to our plastic. Plastic is an artificial product which is not easy to get degradable,  thus it also makes a cover over degradable things which affect the normal cycle. 

Animal Life:  Animals are either vegetarian or non vegetarian, but not a single type of animal has ability to digest plastic. As plastic is a product which is  developed chemically.  After reaching the stomach plastic will stay there as it is not digestible, and with time it will affect the digestion and then may lead to death. Birds and street animals do try to eat garbage and a unintentionally intake plastic will most likely result in death.

Environment: Global warming, plastic is one of the major causes of global warming this can be explained with the diagram seen above. From the diagram we can predict how dangerous plastic bags can be.

So what’s the solution you might ask? Ban plastic bags completely is a difficult task because we are using it widely in below fields.

Medical: Most of the medical equipments come in plastic bags to protect them from various rays and bacteria. So we are using plastic bags packaging for medical purposes for a long period of time.

Food: In the food industry plastic bags helps in the transportation of milk products, vegetables, package food, and many more things for retail purposes. Bulk transport plastic is commonly used also. 

Construction: Earlier to transport construction materials like plastic was not used which cause losses. As in extreme whether plastic can protect raw materials from damage and can also allow easy movement and store facility

Packaging: For transportation and packaging purposes plastic bags can be used. This helps in damage free and the transportation of products, this also works in export and import of products as plastic is highly durable.

As it’s not possible to stop using plastic bags in above fields and there are so many other fields where plastic is used widely. An alternate solution can be good quality plastic or recyclable plastic or organic shopping bags of good material which we can use over and over again, these can also be seen as an accessory! If you use standard plastic which can be recycling further you can save earth and try to reduce global warming. Many countries have already banned cheap quality plastic and switched to environment friendly plastic bags which we will all benefit from. So come on, do your bit and think next time you are chucking away your plastic bag.