Poll result: Are supermarkets right to stop giving free carrier bags?

With 1552 votes cast, the results were:

• Yes: 51%
• No: 49%

A response from our experts

Dr Derek Walton, Associate Dean for the School of Applied Sciences, is the academic representative on the University's Carbon Management Core Team. He said:

"In 2007, it was estimated that each and every person in the UK received 290 plastic bags per year.  Through the actions of the large supermarket chains and greater public awareness, by May 2009, the use of plastic bags had decreased by about half and it is thought that the re-use of plastic bags has increased considerably.

"The majority of those bags eventually end up as landfill or as a litter hazard.  However, the poll result from the website reflects the often conflicting messages received through the media.  

"Are plastic bags good or bad for the environment?  Plastic bags are based on oil and use energy in production.  They also are lightweight and are prone to blow into waterways, where they degrade into small particles which are often ingested.  From this, you might assume that they are always bad, so what of alternatives?  

"Life cycle analysis has shown that plastic bags are preferable to paper bags throughout their life cycle due to lower energy requirements in production and less pollution.  

"Although apparently a ‘‘greener” choice, a paper bag uses almost 10 times as much material as that needed to produce a single-use plastic bag. The production of paper bags demands the use of larger volumes of water than plastic bags, and the degradation process of paper bags in landfills releases greenhouse gasses.  In addition, paper bags are not as strong as a plastic bag and therefore more must be produced.

"So, what is best to do?  Well, like most things around the environment we need to remember to:

• Not use
• reduce
• reuse and
• recycle

"Using life cycle analysis suggests that using the thicker ‘bag for life’ successfully reduces plastic bag use without the need for alternatives such as paper.  Plastic bags though are only part of the story: although they are an easy target, we all need to consider both the amount of packaging an the amount of food we throw away: the environmental cost of food that is thrown away is worse than that from plastic bags..."

Interested? Further reading 

O. Ayalon et al. Waste Management 29 (2009) 2025–2032

UK supermarkets halve plastic bag use in just two and a half years

Supermarkets accused of using more plastic bags

23 November 09