Life Cycle of Plastic Bags - Essay Example

Life Cycle of Plastic Bags: Introduction: Plastic bags have long been employed as a fundamental means to carry things of everyday use ranging from eatables to accessories. They are widely considered as a reliable medium to carry such things all over the world. “An estimated 30 billion kilograms plus of plastics are generated annually in the USA alone.” (Nhamo, 2008, p. 84). Their strength to weight ratio is very high which makes them quite favorable for use in transporting things from one place to another. In addition to that, their production cost is low enough to render them suitable for massive production. They are portable, light weight, reusable and easily disposable. However, use of plastic bag has always been a controversial issue given it affects the animal and marine life in many adverse ways and is conventionally manufactured from non-renewable natural resources. Besides, there are many other concerns associated with the use of plastic bags that are of huge significance to the environment and ecology. Use of plastic bags has been globally condemned and criticized with reasonable arguments. This paper elaborates the life cycle of plastic bags and critically analyzes the environmental effects of each stage of their life cycle. Furthermore, various alternatives that can help eliminate the draw backs of plastic bags while maintaining the capacity to deliver the same usability are also enlisted in the paper. Definition of plastic bag: Plastic bag, as the name implies, is an extremely light weight carrier manufactured with plastic so that it is sufficiently strong to lift a large variety of things of daily use. Functions of plastic bag: All bags are supposedly light in weight, so they inflate once air is filled in them. This property is not limited to just plastic bags. Indeed, all bags irrespective of their material are light weight, and this property fundamentally makes them suitable for use in everyday life for all purposes. However, plastic bag has a significant edge over other types of bags in that they are purely impermeable and are often transparent. This is what differentiates plastic bags from other bags because they offer the user the ease of carrying liquids which many other types of bags do not. The strength of plastic bags is much more than that of a paper, so they are used for carrying significantly larger weights than other bags. Plastic bags are good in resisting tensile stresses. They bear sufficiently larger tensile forces than any other kind of bag. This makes them the best carrier among the variety of carriers available. They come in a variety of sizes. “Small bags have lower visibility than large bags and thin light (HDPE) bags snag more easily than heavier (LLDPE) bags.” (Verghese, Jollands, and Allan, 2008, p. 10). Life cycle assessment (LCA) of plastic bags: In order to estimate the impact of the plastic bags on the environment with respect to the individual stages of its life, a life cycle assessment (LCA) of the plastic bags needs to be conducted. It offers a systematic way to analyzing its environmental impacts. Life cycle of a plastic bag can fundamentally be classified into three key stages, namely the manufacturing stage, the stage of utilization and the stage of disposal. Examination of these three basic stages is equal to analysis of a product from cradle to grave. A diagram reflecting a holistic understanding of the various stages involved in the life cycle of a plastic bag are as follows: (The Northwest Economic Policy Seminar, 2008). Conventionally, paper bags are preferred over plastic bags because of their environment friendly nature. Therefore, effects of plastic bag on the environment in the various phases of its life cycle are highlighted along with the performance of paper bags in the same areas in the following sections. The manufacturing stage: “To produce a single carrier bag of 6g, the required raw materials were 6.06 g of virgin, 0.26g of recycled pellets and 0.26g of master batch.” (Mbohwa and Manjera, 2007, p. 506). Whenever the environmental impacts of plastic bags have been compared with those of their paper counterparts particularly in the manufacturing stage, it has been realized that the former has a considerable edge over the latter because of a number of reasons. (Marlet, 2004 cited in Ayalon, Goldrath, Rosenthal and Grossman, 2009) concluded that plastic bags consume much lesser energy to be manufactured and the environmental pollution caused as a result of their production is minimal as compared to the characteristics of paper bags related to these areas. Plastic bags tend to save a lot of natural resources which are rapidly consumed in the manufacturing of paper bags. According to the results of a research showed that although paper bags are often thought of as a “greener” choice for their considerably lesser deteriorating effects on the environment in comparison to their plastic counterparts, material consumed in the production of one paper bag is up to 10 times of what is required for the production of one plastic bag. Also, water required to make a paper bag is much more than the volume required to synthesize a plastic bag. Not only this, paper bags consume cellulose drawn from trees that are essential to combat the greenhouse gases. (Ayalon et al., 2009). The carriers are built together with the rest of the plastic bag, which makes the process of manufacture easier unlike the paper bags, to which laces are separately attached that not only increase their manufacturing cost, but also render the process of manufacture cumbersome. The stage of utilization: Criticism regarding the plastic bags pertains more to their manufacture or disposal stage than the stage of utilization. In this phase, plastic bags offer considerable advantage over paper bags. In fact, there are more advantages than disadvantages in the stage of utilization of plastic bags. Many people tend to store plastic bags so that they can be used again and again. What particularly adds to the value of plastic bags is their high strength and impermeability. This is an advantage paper bags can not offer. Plastic bags are the most employed carrier specifically for liquids because they are pore-free and are impermeable. Paper bags are porous and are not a good material for carrying liquids. Plastic bags can be tied up more effectively as compared to paper bags, because plastic provides the user with this flexibility. However, because of their impermeable nature and good strength, they can rarely cause threat to the lives of infants as they tend to play with them. Infants may wear plastic bags over their face and die of suffocation upon failure to put them off their face. Although such incidents are extremely rare to happen, yet the Consumer Product Safety Commission notices up to 25 cases every year in which plastic bags were associated with the death of infant one way or another. (Augustine, 2010). The stage of disposal: Plastic bags take very long to decay. According to (Lapidos, cited in McGrath, 2010), plastic bags photodegrade instead of biodegrading and this may take as long as 500 to 1000 years for one plastic bag to photodegrade completely. Once the plastic bags are rendered useless after having completed their utilization period, they are either buried in landfills, or in other cases, remain scattered in rubbish heaps in the garbage. Both of the destinations bring specific problems for the environment in their own ways that are discussed below, though, the problems are solvable and the detrimental effects can be minimized through proper care and attention. Plastic bags form a very small portion of the total waste that is conventionally landfilled both in terms of weight and volume. According to (Convery et al., 2007 cited in Ayalon et al., 2009), plastic bags made up to no more than only 5% of the total municipal waste by weight. This is also supported by the findings of (Shaldag, 2006 cited in Ayalon, 2009) who discovered that thin plastic bags counted only 0.2% of the landfill refuse by weight. This clearly speaks of the fact that reducing the use of plastic bags will not make much difference to the present volume of refuse deposited in the land all over the world. This is also due to the fact that plastic bags are highly compressible, and tend to fill in the voids of the landfill, thus making the heap even more condense. There is a slight risk that the plastic bags might fly away from the rubbish heap in unconsolidated form. However, it depends to a large extent upon the boundaries defined by the municipality of the land as well as the usual wind regime of the very region. Hence, the risk can be minimized by taking care of these factors while defining the area of landfill. Harms to natural environment are much more when plastic bags are left to wander about the heaps of garbage in the open air. Birds are susceptible to getting entrapped in a plastic bag stuck to the branch of a tree after having blown away from the rubbish heap by the wind. Birds entrapped in this way die of suffocation. Not only this, there are considerable damages caused to the wild animals and cattle when they gulp plastic bags in search of food. Plastic bags are non-digestible material, and may lead an animal to develop digestive disorders. A lot of ibex die every year in Israel because eat plastic bags. (Ayalon et al., 2009). Apart from this, the blown away plastic bags gather up in the form of litter in open places and destroy the beauty and cleanliness of the city. The high strength of plastic bags becomes a fundamental cause of criticism offered by the environmentalists against them once the bags are rendered useless. This is because blowing plastic bags assume a good chance to land in the gutters and manholes to block the pipes laid within the infrastructure of the city. Once this happens, the plastic bags tend to hinder the flow of waste water and sanitation for long because they maintain their strength and are not torn away easily. Number of plastic bags noticed in the waste system of UK alone was found to be 1678900 when the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) conducted a survey in 2001. (Augustine, 2010). Plastic bags disposed off in water cause a threat to the marine life. The same report by Augustine (2010) says that over 100,000 marine animals and birds are escorted to death every year by the plastic bags existent in their surroundings. Use of paper bags can also be detrimental to the environment because of the emission of the greenhouse gases as a result of their degradation after disposal in the fills. Useful alternate strategies: Although plastic bags offer considerable benefits over other kinds of bags, yet their use is subjected to controversy because of the demerits they offer in certain areas. Governments in many advanced countries have tried to develop alternatives to plastic bag. Emphasis has been largely placed on reducing the use of plastic bags in order to save the natural resources and minimize the dangers imposed to animals and birds. However, there is a need to find better alternatives to the conventional plastic bags so that the adverse environmental impacts can be nullified. Most appropriate solution to the current issues related to plastic bags is by finding ways to recycle or reuse the bags once their period of utilization is over. “Generally, the reusable carry bags have lower environmental impacts than single-use bags; however, the benefits are highly sensitive to usage rates.” (Lewis, Verghese, and Fitzpatrick, 2010, p. 159). While reducing the environmental effects of bags, the factor that needs to be given supreme importance is their recycling and re-usability. The importance, durability and usability of plastic bags can not be denied. They undoubtedly offer the best carriage service and are user-friendly. Therefore, they should be used multiple times. Plastic bags should be stored for future use and must continue to be used until they are torn away or lost. This will minimize the number of stray plastic bags blowing over the rubbish heaps, and hence reduce threat to the environment in many potential ways. According to the research conducted by (Chase and Hampole, 2010), the form of bag found most beneficial for the environment is a non-woven (polypropylene bag) that may also be referred to as the “Green bag”. Conclusion: Plastic bags are the most commonly used form of bags all over the world. They are popular for their good strength, elasticity, high strength to weight ratio, and transparency. They are widely employed to carry things of daily use. According to New York Times, plastic bags used all over the world in one year ranges from 100 million to a trillion in number. (Frost, 2010). Their durability makes them the most suitable material for long term use. However, there has been controversy about the use of plastic bags because of their long decaying time. Their disposal is a problem because it tends to cause environmental damages. As discussed before, plastic bags cause maximum damage to the environment in the stage of disposal while the environmental effects in the manufacturing and utilization stages are not very significant. Even the adverse impacts of the disposal stage can be minimized by making sure that plastic bags are properly buried in the landfill. Measures should be taken to condemn the disposal of plastic bags on rubbish heaps, because freely blowing plastic bags impose maximum dangers for the fauna of the country. References: Augustine, R 2010, “Disadvantages of Plastic Bags.” viewed 8 October, 2010, . Ayalon, O, Goldrath, T, Rosenthal, G, and Grossman, M 2009, “Reduction of plastic carrier bag use: An analysis of alternatives in Israel.” Waste Management, 29, pp. 2025–2032. Chase, M, and Hampole, N 2010, “Building Long Term Solutions: Retail Shopping Bag Impacts and Options.” BSR, pp. 1-21. Frost, S 2010, “Disadvantages of Using Plastic Bags.” viewed 8 October, 2010, . Lewis, H, Verghese, K, and Fitzpatrick, L 2010, “Evaluating the sustainability impacts of packaging: the plastic carry bag dilemma.” Packaging Technology and Science, 23, pp. 145–160. DOI: 10.1002/pts.886. Mbohwa, C, and Manjera, G 2007, “An Environmental Assessment of the Life Cycle of the Plastic Carrier Bag in Zimbabwe.” Advanced Materials Research, 18-19, pp. 501-508. McGrath, J 2010, “Which is more environmentally friendly: paper or plastic?”. viewed 8 October, 2010, . Nhamo, G 2008, “Regulating Plastics Waste, Stakeholder Engagement and Sustainability Challenges in South Africa.” Urban Forum, 19, pp. 83–101. DOI 10.1007/s12132-008-9022-0. The Northwest Economic Policy Seminar, 2008. “The Plastic Bag: Life Cycle.” Figure. viewed 8 October, 2010, . Verghese, K, Jollands, M, and Allan, M 2008, “The Litterability of Plastic Bags: Key Design Criteria.” 5th Australian Conference on Life Cycle Assessment. Read More