Paper vs Plastic The dispute between paper grocery bags and plastic grocery bags is a battle that has perpetuated for decades. Approximately fifteen United States cities, spanning from San Francisco, California to Cambridge, Massachusetts, currently have either bag bans or bag fees. This designates that a person living in these cities either pays a fee for bags at a grocery store, or they are only offered paper bags in hopes that one will find a more environmentally-friendly way to transport their groceries from the store to their home. These efforts are not in vain, for plastic bags have shown great environmental damage, especially in landfills and marine life, however, the manufacturing of paper bags additionally imposes a great threat to the balance of the environment in which we live. …show more content…
First, plastic bags are composed of ethane, a polyethylene material that is a non-renewable resource. After a life-cycle assessment consummated by U.K. Environmental Agency, it has been proven that production of this material is not nearly as deleterious to the environment as some shopping bag alternatives. Although plastic bags have little environmental damage during manufacturing, they are still a detriment to our environment if not disposed of properly. Many people fail to recycle plastic bags because currently, there are only few recyclers who accept plastic bags since they cannot be remade into plastic bags; they become an impuissant form of an already impotent plastic. However, it has been shown in a study by The Ontario Ministry of the Environment that plastic bags are likely to be reused several times, reducing their global footprint