Are non-woven bags and paper bags really more environmentally friendly?

Are non-woven bags and paper bags really more environmentally friendly?

The Institute of Biodegradable Materials reported that a global consensus has been reached on the issue of plastic pollution. On March 2, 2022, at the Fifth United Nations Environment Assembly, leaders from 175 countries, ministers of the environment and other representatives passed a historic resolution. The aim of the resolution is to end plastic pollution and reach a legally binding international agreement by 2024. The upcoming agreement is being billed as a "global plastic ban".

While we are calling for the control of plastic pollution, we need to consider what is the best alternative to single-use plastic bags? Non-woven bags, or paper bags?

Non-woven bags are much stronger than single-use plastic bags, and we have to recycle them many times to compensate for their environmental impact, yet most of the time, people don't use them to their full potential.

At the same time, another seemingly undeniable paper packaging is on the rise, even if this paper bag is not completely biodegradable, because most of them also need to be covered with a traditional plastic film in order to obtain a water and oil repellent effect.

Therefore, we need a "life cycle assessment" study to help us figure out the impact of common types of reusable bags. The above-mentioned "global plastic ban" also involves the entire life cycle of plastics, including its production, design, recycling and disposal.

1. Life cycle assessment

A life cycle assessment considers a wide range of factors, including raw materials, manufacturing, transportation and final disposal. By looking at all of these factors, researchers calculate greenhouse gas emissions, waste disposal, water and energy consumption, and various other impacts.

To complicate matters further, if you choose a plastic bag, is it made of virgin or recycled plastic? Even if the bag is recycled, shipping is an issue, where is it made? Printing on bags also adds to the environmental burden. Finally, what happens to the bags when they can no longer be used? Is it recycled, reused as a trash bag, or thrown away right away?

2. How many times must a bag be reused?

Once all this information has been distilled, scientists can usually provide a fairly straightforward guideline: how many times a replacement bag should be reused, compared to the standard supermarket plastic bag.

A Danish study in 2018 that looked at how many times a plastic bag should be reused before being used as a trash bag and then thrown away found that:

• Non-woven bags should be used 37 times.

• Paper bags should be used 43 times.

• Cotton bags should be used 7100 times.

Another UK study found that considering only climate change impacts, it has a lower global warming potential than single-use plastic bags:

• Paper bags should be used 3 times.

• LDPE bags (thicker plastic bags commonly used in supermarkets) should be used 4 times.

• Non-woven polypropylene bags should be used 11 times.

• Cotton bags should be used 131 times.

If the non-woven bag is only used once, the energy consumption of a single non-woven bag is 17.8 times that of a disposable plastic bag, and the carbon emission is 16.7 times that of a disposable plastic bag. Assuming that the non-woven bag can be used for more than one year (according to one time/week calculation), the energy consumption of the non-woven bag is only 34% of the disposable plastic bag, and the emission is 32% of the disposable plastic bag. Therefore, non-woven bags need to be reused for a long time to achieve the purpose of environmental protection, otherwise it will cause bigger environmental pollution.

A 2014 study in the US found that reusable LDPE and polypropylene non-woven bags did have a lower environmental impact than the plastic bags commonly found in supermarkets, but only if they were reused enough times. The study found that around 40% of shoppers forget to bring reusable bags and end up using plastic bags. This increases the environmental burden of shopping.

A final consideration is how many bags you will need. The Danish researchers equalized the volume of the bags so that the evaluations are performed on the same volume of space (meaning that for some evaluations it is necessary to take into account the effect of both bags).

As with all environmental issues, we must have the right knowledge to make informed decisions. After looking at all of this data, here are the things I want you to keep in mind:

• Whatever type of bag you use, use as many as possible.

• Choose bags made from recycled materials.

•Avoid bags with printing or embellishments, these alone add significantly to the environmental burden of the bag.

• Never let bags go to trash, recycle, reuse and repurpose your bags.

3. Prospects of the global bioplastics industry by 2029

According to Business Wire, the global bioplastics market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 13.1% from 2022 to 2029, reaching $25.93 billion by 2029.

Based on type, (Starch-based, PLA, PHA, Polyester, Bio-PET, Bio-PE, Bio-PTT, Bio-PA) the biodegradable bioplastics segment is expected to account for the largest share of the market by 2022 . The large market share of this segment is attributed to the wide range of industrial applications and continuous innovations in biodegradable bioplastics.

Based on application (bioplastics market electronics, construction, agriculture, textiles), the packaging bioplastics segment is expected to hold the largest share of this market in 2022. The large market share of this segment is attributed to the benefits offered by bioplastics such as reduced carbon footprint, energy savings in production, and reduction of non-biodegradable waste. Moreover, increasing use of bioplastics as an alternative packaging material and rising demand for bioplastics for packaging organic food and premium branded products further fuels the growth of this segment.

Based on packaging type (packaging, automotive, consumer goods), the flexible packaging segment is expected to hold the largest share of the bioplastic packaging market by 2022. The majority share of this segment is attributed to the increasing use of bioplastics as a flexible packaging material and the benefits that bioplastics bring such as reduced carbon footprint, energy savings in production, and reduction of non-biodegradable waste.

Based on geography, Asia Pacific is expected to hold the largest share of the global bioplastics market by 2022, followed by North America.

The foreign players in the global bioplastics market are: BIOTEC (Germany), Braskem SA (Brazil), BASF SE (Germany), Biome Bioplastics Limited (UK), DuPont de Nemours, Inc. (USA), AKRO-PLASTIC GmbH (Germany ) ), Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Saudi Arabia), FKuR Kunststoff GmbH (Germany), Novamont SpA (Italy), Plantic Technologies Limited (Australia), Futerro SA (Belgium), PTT Global Chemical Public Company Limited (Thailand), Showa Denko KK (Japan), Solvay SA (Belgium), Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corporation (Japan), Teijin Limited (Japan), Toray Industries, Inc. (Japan), Total Corbion PLA (Netherlands), Toyota Tsusho Corporation (Japan), and Green Dot Bioplastics Inc. (USA).