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Paper versus plastic versus reusables

by Posted in 3.6 Good to know, 4 About The Alternatives, 4.0 Us, the boycott & the blog, 4.9 Useful to know Tagged , , 2 Comments

So if I don’t want to use plastic bags then would I suggest using paper as an alternative? Well actually no I wouldn’t.

Cutting down trees to make disposable paper products is very bad for the environment

Converting hard wood into paper bags is difficult work and results in more pollution than making a plastic bag.

Heres are some statistics are quoted on Wikipedia 

  •  Pulp mills contribute to air, water and landpollution. Discarded paper is a major component of many landfill sites, accounting for about 35 percent by weight of municipal solid waste (before recycling).[1] Even paper recyclingcan be a source of pollution due to the sludge produced during de-inking.[2]
  • Pulp and paper is the third largest industrial polluter to air, water, and land in both Canada and the United States, and releases well over 100 million kg of toxic pollution each year.[5]
  • Worldwide, the pulp and paper industry is the fifth largest consumer of energy, accounting for four percent of all the world’s energy use. The pulp and paper industry uses more water to produce a ton of product than any other industry.[6]

That’s not to say that plastic is a clean product but most sources agree it takes less resources to produce a plastic bag than a paper bag.

It also takes less resources to transport them. Paper is much heavier than plastic, more bulky and more expensive to move.

It is often argued that plastic bags are more likely to be reused usually as bin liners or as dog poop bags. If recycled bags were not available, users would have to buy plastic bin liners and poop bags new.  Which means f course that plastic bags are still being used but in a  less sustainable way.

But not all plastic bags are reused as bin liners and not everyone has a dog. Many bags are used once and then discarded.If all plastic bags were recycled say their advocates they would beat paper bags hands down. But  they are not. Most end up in landfill some end up as litter. Not all paper bags are recyled either but if they are dropped as litter they quickly biodegrade. Plastic bags do not and accumulate in the environment with serious consequences.


Indicator of Environmental Impact

Plastic bag
HDPE lightweight*


Paper bag 
 Consumption of nonrenewable primary energy

 1.0

 1.1
 Consumption of water

 1.0

 4.0
 Climate change (emission of greenhouse gases)

 1.0

 3.3
 Acid rain (atmospheric acidification)

 1.0

 1.9
 Air quality (ground level ozone formation)

 1.0

 1.3
 Eutrophication of water bodies *

 1.0

 14.0
 Solid waste production

 1.0

 2.7
 Risk of litter

 1.0

 0.2

The Scottish Report (2005) http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/57346/0016899.pdf

But while paper is more environmentally damaging, plastic pollution is reaching unacceptable levels and has to be tackled.

We have to stop using plastic to make disposable bags. We have to find sustainable alternatives.

Reusables Rather Than Disposables

For all the above I would be cautious about suggesting paper disposables as an alternative to plastic disposables.

My solution would be  to replace all disposables with reusables whenever possible.

Where disposables are offered they should be biodegradable and certified compostable so if they do end up as litter they will cause no damage to environment. I believe the current end problems of plastic pollution are greater than the initial problems of paper production pollution.

I would suggest

Bag Tax

However it is a very close call and the problems of paper pollution are big and not to be ignored. Nor would I like to see compostable plastic used to excess.

I would see all disposable packaging reduced as much as possible. Products should be sold loose and all onward packaging should have a clean up tax  attached i.e. All bags and packaging have to be paid for.

People bringing their own bags and packaging would obviously not have to pay

Reusable versus plastic bag case study….

The Environment Agency a UK government body has done a Life Cycle Assessment of Supermarket Carrier Bags Report SC030148 Read the report your self right here. It claims you would have use a cotton bag 393 times before its environmental impact equalled that of plastic bags.

Here are their maths….

It takes less resources to make one plastic bag then it does to make a reusable cotton bag.
pollution featured featured

Therefore a cotton bag has to be used 131 times before it equals a plastic bag.

If the plastic bags are then reused twice (so they are used 3 times in total) the cotton bag has to be used 393 times before it equals the environmental impact of the 131 polythene bags used 3 times each.

If the plastic bag is reused as a bin liner ( which is what most people do with them) then it is 327 times.

Do your cotton bags fall apart after 393 uses? Fall apart so badly they cannot be repaired? Mine don’t.

I have fair-trade organic string bags which I bought back in 2006 when I started my boycott. I am still using them and the cotton produce bags I bought at the same time 6 years later  ( and still now in 2015 come to that) .

Here are my maths….

Say I use one string bag 3 times a week. That would be for the weekly supermarket shop, the trips to the local butchers and green grocers, town on a Saturday to get library books and bits and bobs, carrying cabbages from the allotment, carrying cushions and all the other gubbins you use a bag for.

So say I use one string bag a very conservative 3 times a week over 52 weeks, (and the bag does go away with us and has been all round the world ),  I will use that bag at least 156 times a year in total

Over 6 years  I will have used that bag 936 times. My cotton bag is already 3 times greener than the plastic alternative and is good for many years yet. Actually it is even greener. You can get so much more in a string bag then a plastic bag. My string bag is worth at least 1 1/2  plastic bags for capacity.

When my bag does fall apart I will reuse it as a net to grow beans up then eventually compost it in my own compost bin.

Conclusions

If I didn’t have a reusable bag I would have to have used 312 plastic bags 3 times each in that time.

That’s 312 bags in the trash to be disposed of. They will most likely be landfilled or incinerated. Some of them might have blown off the truck during transportation. Wind blown refuse is a documented cause of litter.

Because we spend a lot of time abroad, some of them would have gone into bins in isolated villages in remote parts of the world – places that lack a waste collection service. Those bins would have been emptied into the river.

Produce bags…

As for produce bags; does any one reuse a produce bag 3 times – I don’t think so. Once as a dog poop bag maybe. But even if you do my cotton bags still win hands down.

Some Alternatives 

 

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Rethinking My Goals

by Posted in 4.0 Us, the boycott & the blog

I first started the boycott in response to the increasing amount of everlasting plastic litter that was to be found polluting our environment and placing a huge strain on our waste disposal services. As a creator of plastic trash I was part of the problem. It annoyed me and I wondered was it possible to live without plastic. I don’t mean all plastic – plastic is a great product ideal for drainpipes and computers but not for making one use throwaway items. These were the focus of my boycott.

My first simple objective was if I could do without and yes in many cases it is possible to refuse plastic products and source biodegradable alternatives.

However as time has passed and I have had to refine my goals. They are now as follows

Plastic Free  Biodegradable Alternatives

My primary goal is to stop buying and using plastic products. That includes goods wrapped or packed in throwaway plastic packaging such as food stuffs, cosmetics. Disposable plastic products such as cotton buds, Things made of plastic that have a short lifespan such as pens, combs, Stuff for which there is a perfectly acceptable often superior non plastic alternative like mops and brushes and any other plastic product that ticks me off.

Ideally I source biodegradable, plastic-free alternatives. If I can’t do that I try….

Making Stuff

If there is no plastic free alternative I look into making my own plastic free products such as shampoo, window cleaner and hand cream. However there is a limit to the time I have so though I could conceivably learn how to make crisps, will ever have the time to do so so ? No so somethings I just have to give up

Giving Up

If I can’t source an alternative or make my own then my next and preferred option is to give that product up. Thing’s I have given up – include crisps, tobacco and Mars Bars. However some things like vegetable oil I can’t give up so I choose products that have ….

Much Reduced Plastic

Sometimes I have to buy a non plastic product such as wooden pegs  that come wrapped in plastic packaging. In the long-term this represents a massive reduction in plastic consumption.

Ingredients for making cosmetics fall into this category because though sadly most come wrapped in plastic they represent a massive reduction in plastic .

Best of a Bad Job

Please note the following options are the best of a bad choice  and the search still goes on for plastic free alternative.

Recyclable Plastic

Sometimes it is simply not possible to find the required product in plastic free packaging – lentils for example. I can’t live without them but I can’t buy them plastic free. In these cases I only buy them if the packaging is recyclable plastic with local facilities to do so. For more on this see Bad Plastic Worse Plastic

NB this is not an excuse to break earlier pledges if there is a plastic free alternative I do not buy polythene wrapped goods. For instance bread. I can buy or make my own plastic free bread. I can also buy bread in polythene wrappers which is recyclable but do not do so because there is a plastic free alternative. If I have messed up and didn’t manage to get my plastic free bread I do without. It teaches me to be better organized.

Much Diminished Plastic.

Many product have some element of plastic for which is not recyclable such as plastic lids, cap linings or labels. However in the log run these products represent a massive reduction in plastic waste creation. For example glass bottle of cider vinegar (useful for loads of stuff), with plastic lids.

Backsliding

Sometimes I fail. I need bread so I buy it plastic wrapped and all. When this happens I admit to it in my backsliding log and beat myself with twigs. Actually I don’t beat myself that would be too weird but I do feel sullied. However it is important to know how realistic a pledge is. I don’t want giving up plastic to be some kind of penance. Life must be as good if not better without plastic otherwise no one will listen.

Waste disposal

Waste Management

I realize that you can’t talk rubbish without thinking about your own and how it is created and dealt with. Inevitably I have got into reusables, recycling and composting.

Reusables and home recycling

 First I prefer not to create waste if I can hep it so prefered options are reusables like cotton produce bags or refill services  such as Ecover offer

Moreover what waste I do create I want to be able to dispose of /recycle myself by burning or composting then using the end products on the allotment.

Outside Recycling

If I cant recycle it myself then I choose products that can be recycled by the outside services.

Black Bin

Finally and I consider this a defeat rubbish goes into my refuse bin.

Summary

  • Refuse one use “throwaway” plastic products and source sustainable alternatives
  • Not use multi use plastic products for which there is a perfectly viable biodegradable alternative such as brooms, pens and combs.
  • If necessary  provide my own disposable packaging that is biodegradable such as biobags for meat at the butchers or burnable such as paper bags so it can be recycled as compost or ash for the allotment.
  • To promote reusable packaging as oppose to disposable packaging such as cotton produce sacks for beans
  • To promote refill services i.e. washing up liquid. Washing up liquid is best kept in a plastic bottle but that bottle can be reused hundreds of times before being recycled.
  • To make my own plastic free products where necessary.
  • Give up plastic products for which there is no alternative.
  • Where this s not possible choose products that
  • Come in recyclable plastic
  • Have a minimum plastic element.
  • To promote the recycling plastic products though this is not considered an answer to the plastic product problem.
  • Where there is a recyclable alternative to plastic i.e. glass or tin I favor the latter though the arguments are complex.
  • To reduce the amount of waste I create and to be able to dispose of much of my own waste products by burning or composting.
  • To research plastic the product

by Posted in 4.0 Us, the boycott & the blog

In the light of sudden interest in the plastic debate I felt it was time to revisit my thoughts on plastic disposables and packaging. For the last 20 months I have been boycotting plastic items and sourcing sustainable alternatives. My reasons were pretty simple – a gut reaction to all the rubbish I saw around me. But along the way I have had to think about all sorts of other things – composting- growing your own- waste management – to name but a few. In light of all this additional information my rules have devleped. Heres an update.

Plastic is cheap, easily formed, light, easily transportable and incredibly useful and is used for just about everything. Especially as throwaway packaging.

As such allows us access to a marvellous array of products at a price we can afford.

It is in fact a huge advance on conventional forms of packaging- the heavy glass, the resource hungry and easily ripped paper and expensive steel.

As with all forms of packaging has freed us, especially us women, from the need to make everything from home grown root vegetables yanked from the ground and cooked for days.

What’s not to like?

Plastic doesn’t biodegrade;

It cant go on the compost heap like paper and be transformed by the magic of nature into plant food.

It can’t rust away like a tin can its small rusty parts going to sustain the next generation of trees.

Plastic is always plastic. It might over time break into smaller pieces but those pieces are not absorbed into the natural cycles.

Throw it in the sea it will float around for ever – unless it chokes a marine mammal.

Bury it in the ground and it will sit there for millennia and we are running out of landfill space.

Getting rid of plastic is a specialist operation involving either burning or recycling.

Plastic can be easily recycled. That is one of its wonderful features. It can be used over and over again but recycling has to be well organised and depends on a well educated conscientious user group who are prepared to wash and sort their rubbish. Well there’s the first problem. It also requires a recycling plant. So while recycling is part of the solution it does not make plastic disposable products acceptable.

If plastic, throw away items just get thrown away and not recycled or burnt, they are with us forever. Not surprisingly plastic litter is on the increase. Already the problems of plastic pollution are enormous – if we don’t stop producing so much rubbish we are going to be in big kahuna – and I mean really soon.

Recycling might be fine for countries that can provide or afford a recycling service – not so great for those that don’t have the waste removal facilities to deal with it. Plastic pollution in countries like India and Africa is really horrendous. Can I drink Cola from a plastic bottle because we can dispose of the bottle but insist it cant be sold that way in Africa because they cant? I don’t think so. My only real option is to challenge selling Cola in plastic bottles world wide which I do by way of boycott.

Just an aside but it used to be that Cola collected their glass bottles and reused them. In fact they paid you for bringing them back. Now they don’t have to bother. The cost of clearing up coke bottles falls on local government and on me the tax payer. Well b=33=cks to that.

Promoting the use of recycling maintains the idea that this is a easily disposed of product. There is no such thing as a throw away product and nor should there be. A product such as a sturdy plastic bottle which can be used again should be used again. Refill rather than recycle is my mantra. I am more than happy to have my plastic bottle refilled with Ecover toilet cleaner.

But even though it can be recycled most plastic actually is not. It’s not yet cost effective. What is collected for recycling depends where you live. Kirklees will only collect bottles and of course the supermarkets collect bags.

The other option is burning. Burning waste is a problematic issue which requires large specialist equipment for it to be done safely. Yes plastic can be burnt and the heat generated used productively … but .. plastic comes from oil. As such it is finite resource. When you think just how useful plastic is, should we be burning it. I would have thought computer keyboards or recycled, non-rotting sea side board walks might be a better option.

Whether burning or recycling some one else has to do it at specially built locations sometimes miles if not nations away. I want to take responsibility for my own rubbish . I don’t want to produce bin loads that have to be shipped off and disposed of by some one else. Should the bin men go on strike or the basis of society crumble I want to be reasonably self reliant. Taking control of my own waste disposal is one way I can do that. But for that to be possible I need waste I can dispose of myself. I don’t think burning plastic in my barbeque will endear me to the neighbours and as for recycling – enough said. On the other hand with a worm bin and a compost bin I can recycle my own biodegradable waste into compost which I use to grow bumper tomatoes.

So I try to avoid buying products that comes in packaging that needs to go elsewhere to be recycled – that goes for glass too. I think its such a waste that perfectly good bottles have to be recycled when they could be reused.

But there is a list of preferences I prefer glass packaging for food and drink to plastic because while, like plastic it is with us forever, glass vessels it can be sterilised and reused. Hopefully one day they will be as the norm. I mean why can’t we bottle wine in this country in reused bottles? Bring it in in a big tank and bottle it here. Is that a bonkers idea? But I digress.

I prefer tins to plastic or tetra packs because I know that the recycling rates are so much better, the plants so much closer and it will if the worst were to happen and it ends up in the sea it will biodegrade.

But I try to avoid any packaging that has to be recycled before they can be reused. Obviously it is not always possible – I eat jam out of glass jars, I buy tinned sardines and I have to buy some plastic wrapped products. But then I don’t have the time to make everything I need myself, I cant wean my husband off them and it is impossible to buy salt in plastic free packaging – at least round our way. .

So try to limit what I buy to what I consider essential. Obviously my idea of what is essential is open to debate – I am certainly not an ascetic rather the opposite – but I do love the environment and would hate to see it damaged beyond repair. In short m my aim is not to give up the things I like but enjoy them in a sustainable way.

I do believe that if we aren’t too greedy or stupid we could all live a good life on this wonderful planet. Though again my interpretation of greedy and stupid is again debateable.

Which is why I decided to post my actions on the internet.

These are my plastic refusenik rules and I buy products that meet these criteria;

1 – avoid making rubbish in the first place
By not buying heavily packaged goods
Shunning unnecessary throwaway products.
Reusing
Refilling

2 – to deal with my own rubbish
Which means I have to choose products that come in biodegradable packaging

3 – choose products that can be recycled
Pretty much as it sounds but also I will buy recycled products to help create a market.

4 – to find out more about plastic
There are indications that plastic packaging might not be good for you. Reports consistantly suggest that unhealthy plastic chemicals leach from the wrapper into the product.

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Our Waste & Why We Don’t Recycle

by Posted in 4.0 Us, the boycott & the blog 6 Comments

No Landfill

Ever worried about not making your mark on the world? Think you might not leave anything behind you when you go? Don’t – I can assure you that everyday in every way you are making a lasting impression. I realised just how big my own everlasting monument would be when I decided, back in October 2006, to record my own plastic consumption.

I began saving all the disposable plastic that passed through my hands. A sobering 7 days later and I was running out of cupboard space. Leave only footprints? – Not bloody likely! I will be leaving an enormous pile of rubbish with a thousand year lifespan to commemorate my 3 score years and ten on this fragile globe.my pile waste featured

Having realised the plastic problem what’s a girl to do? In this capitalist paradise consumer pressure has massive leverage – reduce demand and supply will follow. The best answer seemed to be to take direct action and boycott the filthy stuff.

On studying my mighty pile, I realised that an immediate boycott would have some very unpleasant results – dirty, rotten teeth, bad body odour and hair thick with grease would occur within the first few days Followed by scurvy, rickets and ultimate starvation. Plastic has become so much part of our lives it is hard it seems to live without it. So I decided to modify my plan. Each month I would study my heap and decide to eliminate one thing. I would research for a non plastic wrapped substitute and replace the bad and ugly with the good. Rather than an immediate ban we would tackle the problem one wrapper at a time.

In January 2007 we launched our 12 steps program for a cleaner planet. We called it that because a) we were giving up plastic..and b) we thought it would take 12 months. Years on and we are still finding new plastic to cut.

Why we don’t recycle either….

When I started this blog, plastic recycling was a small affair. Few councils collected and when they did it was only certain plastics. However since public awareness of plastic problems has grown it seems we can now recycle everything and are praised and applauded for doing so.

Problem solved back to eating crisps… hooray!

Not so. Let’s be clear about this recycling is just a more responsible form of waste management. That stuff in your recycle bin is still rubbish and has to be dealt with the attendant environmental and financial costs. While recycling may offset these costs it is still expensive.

Moreover recycling does not address the main issue of misusing plastic and stupidly using it to make one use throwaway items.Mangroves pollution featured

Because most plastics do not biodegrade plastic lasts for a long time  possibly for ever. It cannot be composted or left to rot where it is dropped or dumped like organic rubbish. Every bit of plastic rubbish has to be collected up and specially disposed of. Inevitably some plastic trash ends up as litter. Because it doesn’t rot, once it is out there it is out for ever. Hardly surprising then that plastic litter is increasing exponentially with dreadful consequences. Not only does it look ugly, it is damaging the environment, polluting the sea, choking up drains and maiming and killing animals.

Anyone who uses plastic disposables, (which is everyone), is deliberately, accidentally or through ignorance guilty of improperly discarding them at some point. Think of the plastic seal on the water bottle that blows out of your hand, the toddler dropping sweet wrappers or even that tea bag you put on the compost heap. Huge amounts of plastic disposables escape out into the environment on a daily basis.

And not just onto the streets and into the trees. Scientists are findings increasing amounts of plastic in the sea and soil and animals they support. Our discarded plastic is changing the environment in fundamental and irreversible ways.

Who Is Responsible

The plastics industry say end users should behave more responsibly, stop littering and start recycling more. To dispose of plastic properly the end user needs to be able finance an expensive system of specialized plastic treatment plants and organize regular rubbish collections. As many people still don’t have access to clean water that’s not going to happen globally any time soon.teabag featured

Then they need to know the difference between what is compostable and what looks as though it is and yes teabags do contain plastic. Then they need to research and find the plastic  in the most unlikely places (tampons, toothpaste, chewing gum and lots more sneaky plastics) and then dispose of it “properly”. Recycled tampons anyone?

We are not anti recycling. We use long lasting multi use plastic and believe it should be recycled at the end of its life. But recycling should only be used occasionally as an end of life treatment not as a regular method of waste disposal.

Dealing With My Own Rubbish

The only regular, sustainable methods of waste disposal are composting and carbon nuetral burning. Disposable plastics fall into neither of these categories. We want to be able to deal with most of our waste ourselves. If it cant be reused, composted or burnt we don’t care for it. We want no trash in our black bin and no trash in our recycle bin.

Cutting plastic and sourcing compostable alternatives means we are almost there.

And check out the campaign for real litter…