September 2, 2009
Are Plastic Bags Really That Bad?
Are Plastic Bags Really That Bad?
The short answer is, "yes." No, they will not cause the sun to fall out of the sky, but when it comes to making recycling difficult and causing a massive amount of litter, plastic bags are an environmental disaster.
For starters, the 100 billion or so plastic bags that were consumed in North America in 2006 alone required the equivalent of 12 million barrels of oil to produce. Most of these are eventually sent to the few remaining landfills, but because they so readily take flight, plastic bags are one of the most common forms of litter in both urban and rural areas.
Plastic bags are a bane to recyclers, most of whom do not take them in their sorting facilities that would seem to take nearly everything else. Instead, those that do end up there are a threat to the proper function of most sorting machines. On the rare occasion they are recycled, these bags are turned into "plastic lumber" or other inherently non-recyclable materials.
Filed under Recycle by admin
