With so much publicity about banning plastic bags lets eliminate the media noise and the special interest groups and let you know the real facts.  Lets compare 1,000 plastic bags vs 1,000 paper bags, grocery size.

Diesel used in transit………………………Paper .58 gallons…..Plastic .06 gallons

Shipping cost (factory to distributor)..Paper $28…………….Plastic $3

Cubic Fee……………………………………….Paper 17.8…………….Plastic .4

Weight…………………………………………..Paper 135 lbs………..Plastic 13 lbs.

Air emissions to produce in lbs/solids..Paper 3.2……………..Plastic 1.6

Petroleum used in pounds………………..Paper 3.7……………..Plastic 1.62

BTU’s required………………………………..Paper 1,629,000……Plastic 649,000

Indefinite recycle life………………………Paper yes………………Plastic no

Recyclable……………………………………..Paper yes……………….Plastic no

Shipping assumes freight cost at $20/cwt, 1,000 miles, 6 miles per gallon, hauling 40,000 lbs (full truckload).

Each plastic bag produced requires much less energy as compared to each paper bag.   Plastic Bags can also be reused for carrying anything or as a trash liner.   The amount of energy required to collect and recycle plastic bags is also significantly less than paper bags.

San Francisco politicians were fast to jump on the populist belief that plastic bags damaged the environment more than paper bags. Did they read the facts first?

The media seems to forget the cost of bringing bags to market.  As shown in the numbers above the amount of fuel used to transport paper is substantially more than transporting plastic.  1 truckload of plastic bags is the equivalent to over 40 truckloads of paper bags.  Imagine an additional 40 tractor trailers hauling paper the same as 1 tractor trailer hauling plastic.  Each of those 40 using manpower, machine power, damaging our roads, bridges and each one polluting our air.

Are plastic bags innocent?  No.  They can be a litter problem if people do not dispose of properly.  They also do not break down in landfills.  However, in increasing numbers plastic bags are being recycled, so the litter problem is decreasing.

Fetpak sells both Plastic Bags and Paper Bags.  It is of no benefit for us to take sides.  However we think plastic bags have gotten a bad rap and felt an article about it was long overdue.

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