Plastic or paper bag - the search for greener Alternative

As waters receded in the wake of the deadly monsoon that hit Luzon lately, the National Capital was drenched with yet another problem – garbage. Garbage is not only visible during or after a heavy downpour, it is visible in many parts of the capital even in broad sunshine. I am not sure though, but from what I see, most of the garbage that teem under its rivers and drainage system are mostly plastics of consumer grade like plastic bags, bottles, food packaging and other everyday items which were blamed to have aggravated the flood.

And what if we outlaw the use of plastics, would the problem still persist? I would like to believe so. This is more than just an issue of the use of plastics. This is also an issue of personal discipline and a skewed mindset. There are types who have this notion that his rubbish is insignificant to contribute to the clogging of our drainage and tributaries because he is just one person. There are also those types who say, “I am not the only person who throws my garbage there, so don’t blame me.” And those who join the dumping frenzy because the others are doing it anyway. While a lot of these other “I don’t care” types just simply want to chuck their trash anywhere for convenience. 

And for as long as such people exist, garbage will always pose a big problem not only in Manila but for the rest of the country. In other words, enforcement is also crucial to eliminate those who contribute nothing but waste. Unconscionable and unthinking dumpers deserved to be dumped in jail.  

But even if we put every bad dumper to where they belong, we still have to deal with the huge waste that plastics can do to our dumpsites and to the environment in general. But do we have a choice? Those who advocate paper for plastics say that it is the way to go. Plastic producers, however, belie the claim that paper is more eco-friendly. Accordingly, it is more expensive to produce paper bags than plastic bags since paper bags require more energy say if we produce one kilo of paper bag vis-à-vis a kilo of plastic bag.

I do not know how to extrapolate this data in Philippine context, but I would like to share a portion of the article of NBC’s chief environmental correspondent, Anne Thompson, in which she said, “To make all the bags we use each year, it takes 14 million trees for paper and 12 million barrels of oil for plastic. The production of paper bags creates 70 percent more air pollution than plastic.”

From this data alone, to say that paper may be a better alternative to plastics may not be entirely true if we take a peek on how paper products are produced from the forest to the processing plants. But then again plastics also beg our honest answer as to how we eliminate them. One may argue that plastics are also recyclable and reusable, but it does not take away the fact that plastics are not permanently reusable for the average consumer. We can reuse a plastic bag for like three or four times then leave it to the recyclers for processing. But the question is how much of these plastics bags that we throw everyday are being reprocessed or recycled?

This brings us back to the post-monsoon scene where everybody seemed to be recovering not from their property losses but by the amount of plastic litter that they had to get rid of after its wake. This alone is auspicious enough to believe that we do not have enough capacity to recycle plastics. In fact, even in developed countries, less than 10 percent of plastics are recovered for recycling.

While plastic bags may be cheaper to produce I do not wish to justify its use for the same reason. Plastic bags come from non-renewable sources mostly from crude oil. It is also like fuel energy that if we dispose of them at the dumps, they are permanently gone from the resource chain. So if you ask me if we should support a policy that outlaws the use of plastics bags, I would still support it even if it means loss of jobs for some people in this industry. I do not wish to support either the use of paper for plastics as grocery bags. Thus, I have no love for both.

I would like to bring back the days when people used to carry their “buyot” (hand-woven bags) to go shopping in public markets. Why don’t we make use of them and in so doing, we encourage or build a new industry. The thing about using these kinds of bags is that many people find them buyots as “baduy” or out of fashion which is actually not a bad thing. But one thing is for sure that those who dread buyots as baduy are in many sense, the very people who are as plastic as the plastic bags that litter in the dumps. So let’s not be one of them.

Send emails to [email protected]