Happy 500th Birthday

Today my reusable nylon bag which I was given for Christmas two years ago has reached it's 500th birthday...that means I have not used new 500 bags which means a lot of saved CO₂e.   

To explain about why using reusable bags is so important I have reproduced a section of the book Facing up to Global Warming.  The thing that really annoys me is when I am offered a paper bag they always double or triple up the bags in case it rips.  Do we really need fancy thick paper bags with ribbons and metal rivets when we buy clothing or luxury goods?  Of course not.  So hopefully this will answer some important questions about bag use and why we should all used reusable bags.

Plastic v paper bags

Globally between 500 -1000 billion standard supermarket high density polyethylene (HDPE) bags are  used each year with 6 billion handed out free to shoppers just in UK during 2012.  The problem of these bags is really the major litter problem that they pose as well as being a major threat to wildlife.  In terms of their carbon footprint this is significant due to the large numbers used.  The transparent ultra thin lightweight HDPE bags (just 0.025 mm thickness) that you use to put loose vegetables in have a footprint of 3g CO₂e each.  The standard printed lightweight supermarket HDPE bag is equivalent to 10g CO₂e each. The thicker reusable supermarket HDPE bag can vary between 100-280 g CO₂e in their manufactured footprint. So for those worried about their footprint, what are the alternatives to the standard supermarket HDPE bag? 

Well interestingly the standard printed lightweight supermarket HDPE bag contains 35% less CO₂e than the equivalent sized paper bag.  When paper bags are used for groceries then you are often given two bags one inside the other to give the bag sufficient strength, so an equivalent paper bag may have six times more embedded CO₂e than the plastic version to give it the same strength. A standard reusable HDPE bag contains 10-28 times more CO₂e than the standard printed lightweight supermarket HDPE bag, while cotton or canvas bags contain on average 171 times more CO₂e.  This means that you would need to reuse your plastic or canvas bag in excess of 20 or 170 times respectively in order to gain an emissions advantage over using the thinner bags just once. A study by the Environment Agency in the UK found that canvas bags are used on average only 51 times with composting the best disposal, making them potentially far less climate friendly than the plastic bags in terms of overall carbon emissions. To put the standard supermarket HDPE bag into perspective, then it contains only one thousandth of the CO₂e than food inside the bag.

What to do with plastic bags?  Interesting there are three options. Burning or incineration releases toxins and 100% of the embedded CO₂e is released, although some heat is generated.  If we recycle the bags then up to 50% of the embedded CO₂e is lost in the process.  In contrast, burying the bag in a landfill ensures the embedded CO₂e is stored permanently with virtually no CO₂e released to the atmosphere.  Difficult decisions eh?

In Ireland the standard supermarket HDPE bags have a levy of 15 cent each on them so that they are virtually never used by customers.  Before the levy was introduced the countryside was littered with the bags, and now such bags are virtually never seen as litter items, except unfortunately containing dog poo, but that is another story.  Transparent ultra thin bags are still given out free in supermarkets.  In contrast, China banned both the standard and ultra thin HDPE bags and called people to use baskets or cloth sacks instead to reduce environmental pollution, including marine litter.  This ban, introduced in 2008 saves 35 million barrels of oil a year in their manufacture.  Ironically China has been the largest manufacture and exporters of such bags to the rest of the world.

So perhaps in terms of emissions the best option if you need a plastic shopping bag is to use a reusable HDPE bag and make sure you use it at least 20 times for a thick plastic bag or 35 times for a woven plastic bag otherwise you will have emitted more CO₂e than if you had used disposable bags.  I called the standard lightweight supermarket HDPE bag disposable because we tend to consider them as a single use item.  In fact they can be used again and again if you are careful, which is putting the investment in reusable bags under pressure.  Lightweight supermarket HDPE bags have loads of different uses so it is important that they are reused as many times as possible, finally using the bag to wrap contaminated unrecyclable waste for disposal to landfill. 

We all have cupboards full of reusable bags…the trick is to actually use them carefully to ensure that they have long lives. The challenge is how many times can you use them beyond their breakeven point?

 

More information: http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/plastic-fantastic-carrier-bags-not-ecovillains-after-all-2220129.html

Paper is  hard to reuse so ALWAYS RECYCLE to save CO2e emissions

What about paper bags?  Using them certainly feels that you are caring for the environment being a natural product. The paper industry is very energy intensive so that the carbon footprint for all paper is quite high ranging from 12g CO₂e for a lightweight recycled bag to in excess of 80g CO₂e  for a virgin paper (e.g. clothing) bag excluding the non-paper handles.  Virgin paper releases between 2.5-3.0 kg CO₂e per kg of paper manufactured compared to 1.25-1.50 kg CO₂e per kg of recycled paper.  Of course the embedded CO₂e in the paper is released when paper is either burnt, landfilled or composted which is equivalent to 500g CO₂e per kg paper on top of the emissions from its manufacture.  So only use paper bags when necessary and ensure that they are full.

Plastic bags, paper bags, and recyclable bags…what do we do? The golden rule is to avoid plastic and paper bags whenever possible.  If you buy reusable bags put a date on them and ensure that you use them well over the breakeven point in terms of emissions. I know it looks awful but rips and holes can be repaired with sticky tap. I would recommend that you invest in long life alternatives (e.g. rucksack, stacking trays for the car).  I brought a high quality canvas bag from Oxfam ten years ago which I have used everyday not only for shopping but for work.  Of course neither my wife nor my daughters will be seen out with me when I am carrying it, but it has proven exceptionally climate friendly.  So you need to find a compromise. 

Having a strategy in place for carrying goods without disposable bags is a surprisingly effective way of minimizing CO2e emissions over a lifetime

 

Single plastic filaments pose another pollution problem on beaches

We associate beach litter with large items such as plastic bottles, plastic bags and sheeting netting, but emphasis has been placed on other categories of plastic waste such as nurdles (https://www.nurdlehunt.org.uk/whats-the-problem.html)  and micro-plastics.  However, the other day while walking along the lovely beach at Brittas Bay in County Wicklow (Ireland) I was pleased to see that there was no large litter to be seen along its 2 km length.  There were a few small plastic strips okay but the beach looked lovely and clean.  I even checked  for nurdles…nothing…wonderful.  

All along the beach were little bundles of organic debris, a mixture of seaweed and other plant

material, which looked lovely and natural.  So I thought I would take a photograph and to my surprise something coloured took my attention inside the small bundle.  The upshot of this revelation was that each one of these lovely little bundles of natural material was held together by plastic filaments.  Usually single blue strands, some with strands of transparent mono-filament net, others contained  more obvious black netting.  There were thousands of these little bundles all along the intertidal zone.  I was totally astonished and unaware of the effect these small plastic fragments were having and the possible consequences for the marine food chain.  It would seem that we have yet another category of marine plastic pollution.

Nick Gray

90% of seabirds have consumed plastic

. Photograph: Chris Jordan/Midway: http://bit.ly/1iYURFI

Our litter and waste has reached a new level of disbelief with a new study showing that upto 90% of seabirds will have ingested plastic items they have mistaken for food.  A report in the Guardian has highlighted their work link.  Their results can be seen in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

We still haven’t learnt as our production of platics in the past 11 years exceeds the amount produced since it was first produced  in the 1950s.But something is being done and new a new collection boom is hoping to start removing larger material soon.

You can help right now by picking up litter that will find its way eventually into the sea.

Posted: Nick Gray

Twitter @Nickgraytcd

Plastic makes the world go round...But can we do without it, when we are buying food?

 Once, I was at the airport at a time too early to be mentioned here. So, there was plenty of time to pass before the buses ran again. I decided to sit down at one of those airport restaurants, which already served breakfast, and I bought an on-site prepared smoothie, which was filled into a tiny, resealable plastic bottle. Of course, an unnecessary wrapping for me, because I finished the smoothie there, and a drinking glass would have done an even better job. Then I thought of how much unnecessary plastic wrapping there is, and how many things I just buy to throw them away again.

Back home, what I did next was to check my fridge for the last grocery purchase, which turned out to contain more plastic than I would have dreamt of, and more than was required. A sinister amount of plastic gathered in my fridge, and suddenly it struck me, why our recycling boxes are always full: not because we are so good at recycling, but because we buy so much waste, because we think that it is convenient to get six plums nicely wrapped up in a plastic basket.

But plastic is more difficult to recycle due to impurity and the mixture of different types of plastic. Therefore it is more likely to be burnt in order to generate energy than it is used to create things. Even worse, it is scarcely reused.  Paper and glass seem to be better wrapping alternatives, because paper is easier and more often recycled than plastic and glass does not lose quality, no matter how often it is recycled.

 That’s why I went down the road to the store and tried to get food without wrapping, or at least with less wrapping which would be easily recyclable. And, oh yes, I was quite successful.

As pictures paint a thousand words, just have a look for yourself.

The difference is striking: The food with less wrapping looks much nicer, and is more appealing to my appetite

There is less unnecessary waste, which does not leave me with a “Big Mac feeling“ of having eaten bad food and having created a lot of waste. Instead, buying food more consciously makes me enjoy my meals much more.

 

Within this comparison, the icecream seemed to be the most controversial. The first coming in a robust plastic box that could be reused, which would have saved me a lot of money on food containers. The latter came in thin cardboard only, not even foil on the inside.

I could replace most of the plastic by paper and glass, although many products can not completely refrain from using plastic. And even if you can not completely refrain from buying things wrapped in plastic, because there are no alternative products, you can reuse some of the plastic boxes, not forgetting to recycle them in the end.

Jasmin Grossmann

Plastic Litter

Ailbhe Reilly’s post My Day Without Plastic has shown us that it is absolutely vital to reduce our use of plastic as well as ensure that litter is not left on the ground to find its way into streams and rivers to make its way eventually into the sea.  Unless it is picked up then the vast majority of litter ends up polluting our major oceans.  Sir David Attenborough explains in a short Planet Oceans video (http://www.plasticoceans.net) that the individual can make a difference to this major environmental problem that Ailbhe raised yesterday.

Nick Gray