The question of ‘paper or plastic’ used to be as iconic as milk, eggs and bread were to grocery shopping. Now, States in the US and other countries are limiting plastic bag production and usage, creating chemically-induced biodegradable bags or banning plastic bags entirely. While many turn the question into a political, philosophical or virtuous argument, the facts remain the same. Although plastic bags are a major source of pollution and litter, and contribute to disruption of the ecosystem, paper bags, which do biodegrade quicker, provide not less, but more danger across the board. Paper weighs more, costs more in resources and fuel to manufacture and ship. are mostly no-reusable and fill up landfills quicker. On the contrary, plastic bag manufacturing is more friendly to the environment; allows for more reuse; and helps preserve food. The bags outperform paper and produce less waste than paper. Of all the plastic pollution nearly all of it comes from a handful of rivers in Africa and Asia, demonstrating that a complete halt in usage in the US would have virtually no outcome globally. The replacing of plastic with paper seems a ‘green’ and ‘progressive’ idea, but once more demonstrates the symbolic nature of a gesture. The same is true for battery powered electric cars, the resource extraction alone being detrimental enough, and then one must factor in the electricity burned to charge them. The same is true for soy production, a crop that has devastated forests and wreaked havoc on the environment from increased chemical usage, among other things.

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