Does banning plastic bags in grocery shops actually work?

The trend towards banning plastic shopping bags comes in the wake of new findings regarding the harm and extent of plastic in our environment. Since plastic is non - biodegradable,it ends up either in landfills or as litter on landscape or oceans. It can take hundreds of years to decompose and releases toxins into the soil and water in the process.

Alternatives include potentially disease - ridden reusable bags,or those hard to carry, commuter - unfriendly paper bags that fall apart in the rain and use more energy in the production process than their plastic counterparts. Harmful bacteria such as coliform are found in nearly half of the reusable bags and E.Coli are found in almost 12% of the bags. These bags,moreover,may also produce more landfill waste. Paper bags nearly generate 5 times the amount of solid waste.

Still,many people are rightly concerned about plastics becoming part of ocean pollution. But the answer to that real problem is much simpler - ensure that products are disposed properly so that they never enter waterways. Plastic bags are not the only single - use plastic items being targeted, polystyrene is on the hit as well. Discouraging the use of single - use plastic bags is almost pointless,given the insignificant variance in carbon footprint between bagging alternatives,including paper bags.

The use of bio - plastics may be the future and could be a convenient solution for all those concerned. More and more different feedstocks can be used to manufacture bio - plastics. Algae is an example. Bioplastics are more expensive than regular plastics.

So a much more interesting challenge is that of keeping grocery shopping from becoming either a burden on the environment or an inconvenience to customers.