A brief history of the Plastic Carrier Bag
Before the worldwide adoption of polythene carrier bags, paper bags were the popular go-to option for consumers and retailers. With the discovery of polythene in the 1930s, and the subsequent use of the material in the production of carrier bags in the 1960s and 70s, plastic quickly became the most popular bag material. The full history of the carrier bag can be found in our recent insight.
Plastic, made from ethylene waste material, surged in popularity during the 20th century because of its strength, light weight, and low production & transport cost. During this time, the innovations of low & high-density polythene were seen as completely win-win – a low-cost, stronger alternative to paper, and a more lightweight material than metal.
It wasn’t until the turn of the century that governments and businesses started to recognise the environmental cost of plastic carrier bags. Consumerism had boomed over the 1980s and 90s, and innovations in plastic carrier bags meant these were not only lighter and more ergonomic, but also easier to consume. Retailers were not charging for these bags and presented them in a ‘tearaway’ fashion, which encouraged consumers to take as many as they wanted. The quantity of carrier bags given to customers in the year prior to the introduction of the plastic carrier bag charge, 2014, totalled 7.6 billion. Landfill sites were packed full of plastic carrier bags, seas, rivers and natural spaces were full of plastic litter, and there was no way to recycle or biodegrade these bags.
Is Plastic so Bad?
There’s not one right answer to this question, but the truth of the matter is that unregulated and unrecycled, plastic carrier bags, and other plastic packaging, can wreak havoc on the environment.
Firstly, plastic carrier bags take 20 years, or longer for thicker bags, to decompose naturally. The decomposition also has a significant environmental impact, as plastic decomposes into microplastics, which then can re-enter the food chain, posing a risk to marine life and potentially human health. Research has found that this is already becoming a problem, with an average of 123 microplastics being identified as present in each serving of fish we eat, and around 74% of fish fillets containing at least one microplastic.
The alternative to this is incineration of plastic, which is actually the most common form of disposal of plastic waste. Around 46% of plastic waste in the UK is incinerated. One of the main arguments for plastic packaging being waste-efficient is its production material, ethylene. This is a waste product of fossil fuel production, meaning plastic packaging is utilising waste product, unlike alternatives such as paper, which requires trees to be chopped down to be produced. The issue is, as long as we continue to incinerate plastic waste, the same greenhouse gases produced by these fossil fuels will be entering the atmosphere, completely negating the waste efficiency of plastic as a material.
It doesn’t take a scientist to be able to see the problem. With our reliance on plastic and the lack of plastic material recycling, we see the most significant proportion of this waste incinerated. This produces greenhouse gases. At the same time, we’re cutting down trees to make paper packaging to replace plastic packaging. Trees capture these greenhouse gases, so by cutting them down, we’re preventing these gases from being removed from the atmosphere. Neither option is good, and each option exacerbates the impact of the other.
Finding the solution
We previously mentioned the 2015 plastic carrier bag charge, something we’ve covered in greater depth before. The policy was simple, wherein sales of any plastic carrier bag now required a mandatory 10p charge. It’s a great example of policy that wins the battle, but not the war. Ultimately, the goal of the plastic carrier bag charge was to reduce plastic bag usage, which it did. We discussed earlier that plastic bag usage was 7.6 billion in 2014, and as a result of the introduction of the charge, this has now fallen by over 98% in the past 10 years. The number of plastic bags used is still high, but it’s no longer an epidemic.
The issue is that consumers’ reliance on carrier bags has not been replaced. Yes, we’re seeing more reusable bag usage, particularly for large, regular retail visits. Yes, we’re seeing fewer single-use bags (plastic and paper) being purchased – a result of a behaviour change, not just in policy. But we’ve not seen a change in reliance on the carrier bag. Given that reusable bags need to be used over 7,000 times to be considered an environmentally friendly alternative to plastic, if you do the math, the net benefit of this shift in behaviour is unlikely to be altogether that impactful.
As with any change, it will take time to find a solution to the issues we’re seeing. Right now, there are impactful and short-term changes that can be made to make our reliance on plastic carrier bags less environmentally damaging. The simple solution is to enable the recycling of plastic carrier bags in home recycling bins. Currently to recycle plastic carrier bags, you must take them to a carrier bag recycling point, commonly found in supermarkets. This is an inconvenience that means the average carrier bag consumer is unlikely to recycle their plastic bag waste. This is a significant contributor to the fact that only 12% of plastic waste in the UK is recycled.
The second solution with the greatest environmental impact is to reduce global reliance on fossil fuels. As we’ve previously mentioned, plastic production is catalysed by and, ultimately, reliant on the production of fossil fuels. The transition to sustainable and eco-friendly energy production will help reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and naturally reduce the availability and cost of ethylene.
A core part of finding a solution is transitioning to eco-friendly carrier bag options – ones which address issues with production, utility and disposal. Options such as potato starch bags utilise waste product, match plastic in strength and utility, and are 100% biodegradable. Until we transition to truly green carrier bags and action behaviour changes that mean we ideally dispose of our carrier bag waste, we’ll continue to see an impact from our usage habits.
Are the alternatives any better?
There’s a common narrative that plastic carrier bags are the scourge of the earth, and that paper is the recyclable ‘single-use’ saviour. There’s an element of truth here – yes, paper is recyclable, but as we’ve mentioned earlier, this comes at a cost. The simple fact of the matter is that paper requires the felling of trees – natural carbon removal machines – and this just exacerbates the climate crisis. Also, though paper can be recycled, it does have a lifespan and can only be recycled so many times before its integrity is damaged beyond repair. It’s widely considered amongst industry leaders and environmental professionals that the impact of paper bags on the environment is as bad, and sometimes much worse than plastic.
When it comes to recycling, the main problem with plastic is the availability and convenience of recycling. Material-wise, plastic is 74% more recyclable than paper. Plastic is also much lighter than paper, making it more efficient and less environmentally impactful to transport.
There are significant problems with plastic usage, but most of them aren’t the fault of plastic; they’re the fault of policy. The sooner we address the actual problems with plastic, both in terms of disposal and reliance on fossil fuels, the sooner we can reduce the net impact. For now, we need to change the narrative that any alternative to plastic is better – it’s simply not the case. Most options for carrier bags have their downsides, many of which are worse than plastic carrier bags. In the grand scheme, plastic carrier bags are not so bad.
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