Paper or Plastic?

Ah, the age old question. “Paper or Plastic?”. Which should you get? Which is better for the environment? I’ll summarize a great answer from Quora:

  1. Plastic isn’t necessarily worse for the environment than paper. Paper is heavy, and making paper pollutes. There are many factors, some of them that you may not think about right away, that affect what ecological impact of each, and these factors can change over time.
  2. Reusable canvas bags are usually worse than plastic. Because the reusable bags are reusable, they have to be durable, and it takes a lot of energy to make. You’d have to reuse one over a hundred times to use less resources than plastic.

So it really depends on many different things and has more variables than you’d think at first blush. This isn’t a complete answer, and the answer may change year to year depending on circumstances.

Thanks Gayle!