Helping or hurting the environment?

I recently read an article by Nirmal Mulji called "Paper or Plastic?" that addressed the issues of environmental harm due to the use of plastic and paper bags. I found many of the statements and facts very relevant to his argument. It was basically about the fact that plastic bags cause a lot of harm to the environment and how paper bags are not the solution to this problem.

One of the points that Mulji made in his article was that plastic bags degrade very slow at a rate of 20 plus years. This coupled with the fact that very few people recycle them makes plastic bags a horrible environmental option. This is a prim example of how many people simply don't care about the environmental effects or possibly don't see the effects right away. If people really cared about the environment yet liked plastic bags over other types of bags then recycling would be higher than it currently is but this simply isn't true.

Another point Mulji brought up was how paper bags are no better than plastic. This is not because of the rate of decomposition but because of the heavier resources needed to make them. This includes more trees being cut down and more fuel burned to transport and make these bags. This makes a lot of sense and shows how easy it can be to think that just because something is biodegradable it can have underlying consequences.

Mulji mentioned one more point that I found interesting in is article and that was the banning of environmentally harmful bags all together. I agree with his point of bringing in government  although I think it might need to be handled in a different way. Banning of paper and plastic bags would mean the only alternative, reusable bags. Reusable bags can be costly and many people might not want to pay or even use them. Instead I think a gradual decline while informing the public of the dangers of plastic and paper bags would be best. This is already something that is going on in the smoking industry with the raising of cigarette cost and mandatory warnings on all cigarette packs to deter the use of tobacco.

To sum things up, plastic and paper bags are by no means helping the environment. The law is a necessary tool for cracking down on the wide spread use of these bags and promoting better alternatives for the future.