Cotton tote is pretty much the worst replacement for a plastic bag

https://qz.com/1585027/when-it-comes-to-climate-change-cotton-totes-might-be-worse-than-plastic/

by curmudgeon22 • 5 years ago

15 6 5 years ago

This is an extremely odd article — it almost feels like a sponsored post.

The argument seems to be: plastic bags are better than cotton assuming you ignore the impact caused by littering AND the pollution of oceans by plastic.

legacynl• 5 years ago

I guess the point they're trying to make is that the production of cotton bags is worse for the environment than the production of the plastic bags.

But I agree that it does feel like a sponsored article. The author is mainly summarizing what the report says, but sneakily skips over some 'unconvenient' details.

The report also assumed the cotton could not be recycled, since very little infrastructure exists for textile recycling.

This is the most egregious one: First of all the report says something totally different: "the recycling scenario was not considered for this[cotton] type of carrier bag. If the bags were recycled it would lower the impact of using the cotton bags."

2nd point: Under 'Assumptions' the report gives the real reason for not looking at recycling of textiles; "Recycling of textiles was not taken into account since it mainly occurs outside the Danish waste management system, ... The extent of recovery of materials can be extremely variable according to the specific collection selected, and the quality of the material collected."

So the reason presumably has more to do with the lack of data, or difficulty in analyzing the data. This is certainly not the same as 'very little infrastructure'.

The report itself has some more interesting tidbits: * The benefit of the plastic bags assumes the bags will be incinerated locally in one of the Danish Incinerator-Power plants. The power generated is offset from its production. * "Simple LDPE bags: Can be directly reused as waste bin bags for climate change" - For climate change? * Also what's the obsession with using those flimsy bags as bin liners? Ignoring the fact that they might break after throwing in something heavier than a piece of paper, How often do these people need to change their bin liners? When those cheap bags where still free I'd easily get more than 10 in a week. You don't see people coming home with 10 new cotton bags. * The report doesn't include bio-degrading the biodegradable plastic bags as an option, mainly because it hardly bio-degrades in landfills.

_rpd• 5 years ago

Published 2019

octokatt• 5 years ago

So, this only looks at cotton, not hemp or other more environmentally fibers.

That said, the crux is just reuse things. Yes, even after they get worn out and they’re not as cool or fast or fresh. In case anyone was still wondering. Use less stuff, oddly enough, less stuff gets used.

EricBurnett• 5 years ago

An old squirrel nest fell into my lawn a couple days ago, and I got a look at it while removing it. It had five entire plastic bags incorporated into it's structure.

Reuse has to be the key. My tote bags are likely coming up on 500 uses by now, from reusing the same ones every trip for years, and are nowhere near done yet.

randyrand• 5 years ago

As a general rule of thumb, the more something costs the worse it is for the environment.

Resources cost money. The more resources something took to produce, the more it costs, generally. Yes there are plenty of exceptions.

Cotton tote is pretty much the worst replacement for a plastic bag

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