OUGD603 - Unpackaged Research Brief - Bags

While researching for this brief I wondered if brown paper bags were sustainable enough to produce some for the theoretical anti-packaging store. Although according to the waste hierarchy you shouldn't use anything unnecessary (a tote bag could be reused whereas paper bags may not be able to be reused) I was curious to see how bad they could really be for the environment.

I found an article in The Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/shortcuts/2011/dec/20/paper-plastic-bags-which-best) comparing plastic bags to brown paper bags. Through reading this article I also found out about Wrap, the government-funded company set up to reduce waste. They basically said that any type of bag has an environmental impact:

"All types of carrier bag, whether made from plastic, paper or jute, will have some impact on the environment during the manufacturing process, transportation and ultimate disposal. The best way to reduce their carbon footprint is to simply re-use them as many times as possible and then recycle them at the end of their useful life."

So basically, the more reusable a bag is the better that it will be for the environment. The article goes on to quote more sources on the subject:

"Faced with the question of paper or plastic, the answer should always be neither," says Reuseit.com. According to a 2007 study (funded by US plastic bag manufacturers), it takes almost four times as much energy to manufacture a paper bag as a plastic bag. Paper-bag manufacture uses 20 times as much water as plastic and paper requires more energy to be recycled.

So maybe paper bags are not an option for the un-packaged shop that I plan to create. It seems that customers will be better off bringing all of their own receptacles to store the goods they want to buy rather than the store providing any when it comes to bags. In fact, the article goes on to say that cloth bags would have to be re-used 131 times to reduce its environmental impact of that of a single-use plastic bag. It really seems like we can't win when it comes to packaging.