What’s with the controversy surrounding plastic and paper disposable bags? If you’ve been paying attention to the news in recent years you may have heard about the negative effects of plastic and paper disposable grocery bags. Why is that? Why is it important to stop using disposable bags and commence using eco friendly reusable or recycled bags? Before buying into any trend or cause, it is essential to be familiar with exactly how your commitment will produce a positive impact on the environment and our world. In today’s article, we will analyze some key ecological issues and problems connected with disposable shopping bag usage.

The Environmental Literacy Council does a great job of explaining the negative effects of both plastic and paper disposable bags at EnviroLiteracy.Org. We will start with the environmental impact of manufacturing plastic and paper bags from production to delivery. Plastic bags are manufactured using oil, and so the environmental consequences of production includes all things from retrieving the oil, to the separation of products in the oil refinement process, to the plastic fabrication process, and the energy exploited and emissions created to distribute the bags to retailers. So the truth of the matter is that the production of plastic bags (as a result of and by our demand as consumers) is a contributive factor to our addiction to oil. Paper bags, are of course produced from trees and lead to worldwide deforestation and reduction of life habitats all over the earth. Moreover, the quantity of energy exploited to assemble and circulate paper bags and the carbon emissions created is worse than that of plastic bags. The reality is that neither paper nor plastic bags are a healthy product for our environment, especially compared to eco friendly recycled grocery bags.

Obviously, as you may know, one other key issue with disposable bags is the extensive pollution and litter problem, especially connected with plastic bags. Plastic bags are like the “modern tumbleweed” blowing down the road. They show up everywhere and often end up in swamps, streams, rivers, lakes and in the ocean. While researching this piece I came across some startling data at 5gyres.Org, which educates people regarding the 5 gyres in our world’s oceans. Here’s a tid bit: “At sea floating plastics are swept up into slow moving currents. These currents are called ‘gyres’. Our Oceans are dynamic systems…. made up of complex networks of currents… Large systems of these currents, coupled with wind and the earth’s rotation, create ‘gyres’, massive, slow rotating whirlpools in which plastic trash can accumulate.” Out of all these Gyres, the most renowned is the North Pacific Gyre, also known as the “great pacific garbage patch”, has been studied the most and is a collection of trash and plastic estimated to be roughly the size of Afghanistan.

What many people don’t know is that there are, in reality, 5 gyres distributed throughout our planet’s oceans where rubbish, and especially plastic is accumulating at a fast rate. Among the worst things about this is that marine animals often times mistake this waste floating in the sea for food and suffocate or die of starvation as a result. By utilizing reusable green bags, instead of disposable paper or plastic bags, our individual actions lend to the solution instead of the problem.

The environmental crisis our earth finds itself in nowadays requires that we take prompt action. You now can obviously understand, the broad use of disposable shopping bags contributes to major environmental problems that won’t just go away. We must alter our daily habits by reminding ourselves to use reusable eco bags whenever we can possibly do so. By taking a stand and opposing the common pollution problem brought on by plastic and paper shopping bags, we are creating a better habitat one decision at a time.

Albert Jefferson is a greatly accomplished journalist talking about eco and sustainability matters plus giving the idea to organizations to employ eco friendly reusable shopping bags to promote their trade name while protecting this world’s environment.