The Greenest Grocery Bag
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- Опубликовано: 9 мар 2021
- It seems like a simple question with a straightforward answer, but when you look at the total environmental impact of each type of bag, things start to get a little complicated.
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This is why I only use the orange pumpkin bucket that I saved from Halloween.
Yeah. Use it until it falls apart and only replace things you need.
Personally I like a net bag. You need less cotton to create it and you can also create them out of other materials.
@@alyk4683 I was wondering about wool bags.
Brilliant!😄
What about pillowcases? Whats the usage offset of that?
this is the best option
People often forget the "reduce, reuse" part of recycling.
Exactly. These studies missed the point that people could reuse their cotton bag for decades 😂
@@paulinemoira8442 you're right 😂 when I posted the comment I had not watched the video to the end. I should've deleted my comment but the video also suggested reusing whatever you have is probably the best way to go.
Reject:do you really need a bag.?
@@pelicanformation3802 most of the time no I don't need. But I usually carry the one I already have in my backpack just in case. I'm not gonna get new ones whether plastic or cotton. And I'm not gonna dump my cotton bag away because "it's bad for the environment". That doesn't make sense.
reduce reuse recycle rot!
I can't imagine a greener bag than boomerang bags
In Australia we have a project called "boomerang bags" where some stores have racks or bins of reusable bags available for people to use for free & if someone has too many reusable bags at home they can leave them on the racks for other people to use
So the system doesn't require people to remember their bags every time, they just need to bring the bags back once in a while when they accumulate a lot of them at their house
When the racks are set up (before the public starts taking them and re-filling them etc) they are filled with bags made by volunteers from upcycled fabrics, like old curtains, clothes etc
People will bring these ones back but also any reusable bags they've gotten from other stores etc
So the whole system only uses bags made from materials that already existed and would have gone to waste, or bags that already existed
It provides a solution for the consumers who want the convenience of bags waiting for them to use at the store
AND it provides a solution for people who have already accumulated heaps of reusable bags, that they will never be able to use because they have so many of them
It's perfect
This is awesome
Whaaaaaat that is cool
I always bring my own cloth bags. After a pandemic like this, I would not care to use other people's used bags.
Love this concept!
I love this!
Let me enlighten you to the supreme way of life: Reusing single-use bags
exactly
... Which is what I do when I take my own plastic bags from the drawer to put vegetables in at the greengrocer's.
Ban plastic completely.
@@madsam0320 good luck with getting any medical treatment without plastic.
@@madsam0320 no. but partially, yes.
I love it when stores offer to pack up your groceries in a box that they already have because food was shipped to them in it. Costco has done this forever and Trader Joe’s started recently!
It works, and is a great idea, but it can be a catch 22. Natural Grocers does the same thing, but unlike larger places like Costco and a busy Trader Joe's location, we only got trucks in 2-3 a week. We would get a truck in Saturday morning, then a large influx of people filling their carts with more items would come during the weekend. So, by Sunday afternoon or evening we would start to run low on boxes and be completely out the first couple of hours Monday morning. We didn't get another truck in until mid-day Tuesday and have boxes unpacked and ready for customers until the evening. The big issue is that the company didn't really make it clear until checkout that we didn't provide bags, and never mentioned it in it's marketing to new customers. Then when unwitting people got to the register, there weren't really any alternative options other than buying reusable plastic bags that started at a dollar each. In concept it's fine, but my store in particular was in a lowerish income area, and catered to some people on food stamps. And when you have a cart full of groceries, having to spend $5-10 on grocery bags that can't be covered by EBT doea make a difference.
That's fine for people driving to do their groceries but for those of us who use public transport, cycle or walk to do grocery shopping, this doesn't work.
@@ElphabaHeartshaven great info :)
Corrugated cardboard boxes are recycled at a really high rate. Go to a big supermarket. There are bales of crushed corrugated boxes in the back, destined for a trip to the recycling mill...
im not trying to deter anyone from doing this, but the only reason my family stopped doing this was because it jept bringing cockroach eggs into the house from the costco warehouse. however- this was over 15 years ago, and we’ve been able to get boxes from grocery stores (by just asking) without a roach problem, and due to covid we just bring the groceries in the cart to our bag in our car, so you could do both *if youre able*
The elephant in the room is that it is almost irrelevant which bag is worse environmentally, but how much plastic is used for packaging the stuff you buy and put in them.
Yes, excellent point.
And the fact that people need to be okay with being slightly inconvenienced in order for us to do better.
And how expensive it is to buy stuff in bulk because greener options have become gentrified
Especially 1 and 2 plastics being only 50-70% actually recycled
I really wish there was more "milkman" style things where you use up a reusable container and give it back to be cleaned and filled and re-sold. Another thought I've had is more things being available in some kind of dispenser, where you can take any container of your choice and you go to the store and just fill it up yourself and you handle whether you clean and reuse the container and stuff. I still use powdered detergent in part because it's what I'm used to but it also comes in cardboard compared to the plastic bottles of liquid detergent, yet liquid detergent seems much more popular for some reason. Anything can exist in a dry form is easier to package in a biodegradable way, while almost all liquids tend to be put in some kind of plastic that often just gets thrown away.
In Mexico, a grocery plastic bag never gets voluntarily thrown away: You will always find them being taken as trash bags, leftover bags, or just being used for carrying stuff around. We even use them to prevent getting wet our hair if it rains.
Same as in Asia
You can also use the single use bags you may have to knit new sturdier multi-use bags from them.
If used as trash bags you are voluntarily throwing them away
I thought this was common practice - Asian grown up in uk
For some Americans, same. Except maybe using it to keep hair dry during the rain. Instead a close comparison may be using it to wrap one's hair when deep conditioning. It depends on one's culture/ community.
And that's why I use my backpack for everything: study, work, and grocery shopping. I have used for 8 years non-stop, and get it fixed as it tears out.
If you need more stuff then will fit in a backpack try a laundry basket they work wonders
Yeah put packages of meat, that also aren’t packed in plastic, into your backpack for years. I know you’re coming with my eyes closed from the stink…
…Oh I forgot you’re vegan
Everything? Garbage? Everyone uses disposable bags.
@@steviesevieria1868 you know you can wash a bag, right? In fact you should for all bags you reuse.
@@fallmite9485 i have a 110 liter backpack so i fit what ever i want i even buy 24 rolls of TP at once and still able to buy other things
Best option: Keep reusing whatever bags you already own indefinitely.
And when you really need a "new" one: scout your local thrift store.
If everyone on the planet follows suite. Most people including me would discard it after use.
Or carry things by hand lol I stop shopping when i can no longer balance everything in my hands
@@iloveprivacy8167
Or make it from a sturdy fabric you already have.
@@moonshot9056 the everyday person is who the industries cater to so I suppose if they aren't paying attention or just dont care they are just as much to blame. Why do people keep thinking it has to be one or the other....
You feel bad about your grocery bag usage until you see anything shipped on a pallet wrapped with 40 feet of 18" wide cling wrap. Industry loves to point at people so no one looks at them.
Yeah, this reminds me of the 70s and anti-polluting campaigns. Sure, people shouldn't litter, but shutting down industrial sources was the big way to get clean water and air.
Or pointing at microplastic in cosmetics (in general a valid üoint of critique) while ships are still cleaned with micro beads...
@@hannajung7512 Or just anti-fouling paint in general. Maybe the trade off there is less fuel, but still. How many bottles of antibacterial hand soap with triclosan do I have to pass on to offset 15 tons of paint ablating?
Yeah, I usually loath shopping online, and buying from stores because of that. It's virtually unavoidable to prevent any waste production, whether directly or indirectly... and knowing what I know from working retail, non of that plastic gets recycled, just straight into the trash.
You’re entirely right, the term “litter bug” was actually coined by corporations trying to shrug off the responsibilities of their own climate impact and push it onto the consumer, but you can use as many reusable items as you want, until companies actually try to be greener (which there isn’t much motivation to do) themselves we will be stuck picking everything up
I have a bag made of jute (burlap) and it makes for a great shopping tote. Jute is actually environmentally beneficial to grow because it is grown with rice and the two crops support one another. Its a much better alternative to cotton which has a massive water cost and doesn't support other crops
You are right bro
fantastic news
This video is making the fact that I make bags out of old clothes very very good for my consciousness.
Unless you could have used your clothes for as a substitute for something more energy intensive to produce. Use your clothes for rags instead.
@@kris4733 They can do that after the bag gets too worn out. Then it's been recycled twice.
Need to look up some tutorials 👀
@@kris4733 Why not both? Why one or the other? And how are rags more energy intensive to produce than bags?
Man I wish I could sew with enough confidence to use it as bags without fear or breaking.
The best bag? The one you already have. You're welcome
Accurate.
So my single use plastic bag with a hole in it is the best?
@@MichaelDavis-mk4me if it's usable? Yes!
@@MichaelDavis-mk4me Exactly! Glad we're all on the same page here
ALL OF THEN THEN
One easy solution to the problem of shopping bags is to not use them. Hear me out! After receiving a couple of heavy duty cardboard boxes that had been used for shipping produce, we started putting them in the car for shopping trips. When we go through the checkout, we ask the bagger not to put anything in a bag, but to put it all back in the cart. Then we offload the contents of the cart into the heavy duty cardboard boxes and make our way home. We haul the groceries into the house in the boxes and then, once they're empty, set them aside until we go shopping again. These boxes are really, really tough. We've already used them over 100x and they still have a lot of life left to them. When they do start to fall apart, they will be recycled. No solution is perfect, of course, but we've found that this works well for us.
You're using a car! That's evil. ;) (I know, most people do.) The pedestrian equivalent for larger quantities is a handcart, and I've used one to buy in bulk in the past. Normally I use cotton bags or my backpack and walk or bus it, out of necessity.
@@sarahrobertson4629 When I was younger, healthier, and lived in the city, I used a handcart and traveled by bus too. Now I use a car out of necessity, due to physical impairments and an abysmal small town transit system. I think the key is for each of us to make the smartest choices we can given our particular circumstances.
@@livinginthenow Of course. I wasn't serious. And small-town life sounds nice.
@@sarahrobertson4629 Lol. I know. And it is. :-D
I cycle to the grocery store (I don't have a car haha) and take panniers with me which I already have for bikepacking trips. Then I put things straight in the panniers. Doing that can be a bit annoying though because if you go through a checkout served by a person, they don't know what panniers are and never load them evenly. And if you go through self-serve, the machine always freaks out and says your bags are too heavy so you have to get the assistant to come over every time!
That disposal problem seems like a pretty huge thing to handwave at and say "it's complicated." I would also be interested in seeing an analysis of the microplastic pollution resultant from all manner of disposable plastics.
this tbh! I was really disappointed in this video’s analysis of disposal, as well as taking the impact of agriculture at face value-plenty of textile farming can be made WAY more sustainable!
If a plastic bag is properly disposed of in a landfill there will be no microplastic pollution to the environment.
@@robmausser I laugh at this preposterous notion.
@@robmausserwhat does it mean to be properly disposed of?
Do you guys remember how many plastic bags they would give you, even doubling them because they are flimsy? One cotton bag usually replaces 3-4 single use bags every time.
Clerk: "Paper or plastic?"
Me: "It's complicated."
Clerk: *sigh*
Okay I actually laughed out loud
quality.
Scissors. I win this bagging round
Jokes acknowledged and then moved past: The correct answer is “no”. ;)
Hopefully it's the right "sighs."
Funny thing: the reason why we banned free single-use bags in Ireland (first country to do it) wasn't some effort to reduce waste, but because single-use bags had became a blight on the landscape. Reducing waste was a secondary concern. It's achieved exactly what it aimed to achieve.
The Irish have learned to overcome blights the hard way 😎🇮🇪☘👊🏼 Erin go Bragh!
Actually, plastic was repealed due to its clogging of systems and murderous outcomes on animals.
@Tim The country called Ireland
@@m.j.golden4522 Yes, that's what "blight on the landscape" implies.
@Tim there is only one country called Ireland. The area of 'Northern Ireland' you're referring to is an area of the UK. The country is the UK. The laws that govern it are the laws of the UK. And they pay taxes to the UK government. Ireland is a seperate and different country. It's like confusing the country of Mexico and the US state of New Mexico - COMPLETELY different.
Question: what about the fact that I can carry much more product in a reusable bag than in a single use plastic bag? It’s not uncommon for me to stuff $50 worth of groceries into one bag; I’d be using roughly five plastic bags for the same amount of groceries
Good point 👉
"It's complicated" is figuratively the best answer to literally every question!
Plastic bags have been banned for a few years where I live, and the stores charge us for every paper bag they give out. So now I make my own out of my old jeans and they're really durable.
Great idea! A torn, old pair of jeans still can yield a lot of durable material! I use an old, sewn-up jeans leg to carry my camp cook tools...those grilling forks don't penetrate the denim!
o that what i was doing wrong the key is use old jeans close to make bags not the ones you are wearing while shopping at the store . now i know why the cashier and the customers were looking at me strangely
Too cool
They can also make bags from recycled plastics and textiles. The study seems designed to get to a certain result
Also... Hemp
Can't wait to go grocery shopping with my complicated
just do it. the looks are worth it..
so complicated, you couldn't even finish a
@@DIOsNotDead why'd you have to go and make things so
why are we doing
This is getting
Very curious how hemp bags would compare to cotton re: production impacts.
I came here to say this too.
If i would guess, significantly less than cotton (takes less water, pesticides and fertilizer to grow) but still worse than reusable plastic bags in the manufacturing sense. Thats just a guess though!
Hemp bags are the best alternative.
I cant remember when I last used a shopping bag, its always a backpack for me. I need it anyway so I might as well use it for shopping too.
the best bag is always the bag you already have
You've never done a week's worth of groceries on a bicycle :) there's been times I've had a backpack, a basket, 2 saddle bags and an additional bigshopper grocery bag.
@@J0k394 welcome to my life...
Arelias, you sound like you are either single or shop for food daily. A week of groceries for my family takes 4-6 times the volume of an average day pack.
I feel comfortable with using my reusable cloth bags due to the fact that I make my own out of repurposed fabric from my old sheets, T-shirts and what ever other clothing that I otherwise would throw away.
That's awesome!
Another option for anyone interested is to crochet or knit a sturdy bag out of single use plastic bags
if you already have them, there's no reason to throw them away! it's better to keep them and use them rather than throwing them away & getting something else (meaning something else was produced & thus more impact)
Bags bags bags.... Btw, the carbon footprint of the elephant in the room anybody? Then please watch "the true cost of the military industrial complex" (numbers still underestimated).
@@lorenzoblum868 spam spam spam...
In the end, as always, Reduce and Reuse is more important than Recycle.
In this case, also more important than choosing the right material.
All important part of the chain, if one use plastic that don't get properly disposed will get trapped in the environment for ages.
However it seems like there isn't a good method to factor the long term harm as part of the footprint calculation.
@@lucretius8050 there is, LCA with CF and circular index includes long term effects. Reuse is not always easy. Shopping bags are easy case, but there are many products cannot be easily reused or require so much washing that you are back to square one. That is why proponets of Circular economy seek the full market change.
+
Well as a guy that likes to carry all the stuff in 1 go, those cotton bags only last me 6 months to 1 year... Don’t think I get the full 150 uses. At least them corporations are making extra money on bags now.
@@specteroverlord6367 Then try nylon. I abuse the IKEA bags I bought (not the "Blue Bag", but the totes) on a regular basis, and have only had one start to tear up over several years.
Really makes you think about how horrific the fashion industry is when you compare a T-shirt and a cotton bag... a lot of those bags are used more than your average fast fashion top I bet
Even worse when thinking about blended fabrics that contain cotton and plastic-based fibers, which is very common in fast fashion...
@@Soapynah Well, it seems pure cotton is worse
@@123TeeMee I don't think so. The cotton will biodegrade leaving microplastic particles to damage ecosystems.
It’s so weird that the environmental impact of drilling for the petroleum isn’t mentioned
agreed
It is taken into account for the carbon CO2 emission probably.
But I agree the the impact on soil isn't taken into account.
Isn't that included in the total environmental impact assessment
@@juch3 nope
Well, this video isn’t about that…as he says, the bag problem is a small issue within the much larger climate and waste discussion
The mantra “reduce, reuse, recycle” is in that order of actions. REDUCE the amount of production and use of environmentally harmful products. If you must use those products, REUSE them after using them. Lastly is RECYCLE. Recycle is last because it is costly and uses a lot of energy to recycle. The first two steps of reduce and reuse should be considered first.
Add refuse and rot (compost) to your list.
@@Andytheevien its not part of the saying, it doesnt rhyme, and its also whats assumed to happen to the thing you are talking about (assuming that it can) after those three
@@Andytheevien I mean, yeah. That’s expected after you’ve done those three other actions. I was just pointing out that the order IS NOT 1) Recycle 2) Reduce 3) Reuse or another other ordering. It’s 1) Reduce 2) Reuse 3) Recycle (and I guess Refuse and Rot at the end) because that’s the order we should be thinking about production and use of practically any good, let alone paper bags. Also, some things cannot be recycled or reused (think energy from gas/oil/coal (I’m not saying whether it’s right or wrong to use this type of energy, I’m only using this as an example)) so our only option might be reduce. Again, the order is important.
@@sarahisavampire Reduce and Refuse are really the same. As in "refuse to being tricked into buying stuff you don't actually need" ;)
I'd love to see the numbers for hemp or bamboo or other more recent additions to the "reusable bag" category. Intuitively, they skip a lot of the downside of cotton, so I'd definitely expect them to be better than the cotton bag option.
Yeah, I was reading the comments wondering if anyone had brought up hemp and bamboo. Reusable bags don’t just have to be made from plastic or cotton. Maybe that hasn’t been studied yet, but I was a little disappointed that it wasn’t at least mentioned in the video, and I’m definitely curious about how such studies would turn out.
Yeah, that woulld be awesome.
I'm really skeptical about hemp clothing. People are usually highly passionate on this subject and the public discussion seems a little biased.
We've been using large, tough, jute fibre bags for years (decades?) now, so I've no real clue how that stacks up.
Commercial manufacturing of plant-based textiles (rayon & viscose families, which can also be man-made, and rami) use chemicals that are harmful to the environment to melt the fibers in order to produce even quality. And of course the dyeing process uses lots of water and chemicals that are harmful to the environment. Even plant-based dyes are not environmentally friendly. Linens made out of flax, bamboo, hemp and nettle (and ramie?) can be processed mechanically, but the processes are more arduous and costly, which would make the fabric less competitive, and chemicals are still likely to be added to improve qualities like resistance to mildew or stretch of the fabric.
Would still need water, fertilizer, pesticide just like the cotton. The resources needed in the manufacturing would be nearly identical.
In India at least middle class families have converted old long clothes like sarees into cotton bags
I use discarded fabrics to make shopping bags, like fabric offcuts and surplus. I concentrate on cottons, and not only are they reuseable, they are pretty
The best reusable bag for your groceries is a pannier that you attach to your bike that you ride to the grocery store OR a bag on wheels that you use to walk to and from the grocery store. The greenhouse gas emissions you save by not driving there in a car more than make up for the production emissions from the bags.
Interesting that the life cycle of cotton bags included growing the cotton but the life cycle of plastic bags didn't seem to include getting the petroleum out of the ground and refining it.
I wondered about that too.
I'm not a petroleum engineer, but it's quite possible the compounds used are byproducts of other oil refinement. I haven't read the actual studies either, but I would be surprised if they neglect it without first establishing it as significant.
+ the ever present risk of oilspills which are catastrophic. Also, oil is finite and non renewable
Having looked not at how to do a life cycle assesment, but a mini version called an eco audit, there are normally four separate steps. The first one is getting the materials, ie growing the cotton or extracting the petroleum and making it into plastic. It would be very strange to not include a whole step in one of the materials and do in another. My guess is that they simply did not mention it in the video. I mean, they didn't mention a lot of steps because manufacturing is complicated, to say the least. Life cycle assesments are normally massive projects that can take years to complete, so to leave up such a big and relatively easy to account for part would be very careless. (The eco audit and learning about life cycle assesments was a part of my university education btw, to get my credentials clear)
I thought of this, too!, and what about human and political costs of petroleum... and environmental (oil spills, habitats)... I know that wasn’t part of the question, but thoughts floating through my head watching this. I feel like this video is incomplete.
So making my grocery bags out of old tee shirts was not a bad idea. Thank you grandma for not letting me buy stuff that I could make and teaching me how to sew.
I make mine without sewing.
Just cut vertically an inch or 2 into the bottom of the shirt a bunch of times and tie the strips together in knots to make them bottom.
Then just cut off any sleeves and cut the neckline however you'd like to make the bag opening.
The arm holes are now your handles. 🎉
I went to a consignment shop that have out free bags made this way and loved it so much I had to make my own.
@@tokkivonbonn279 that's a really nice idea. I'd give it a go👍
The most important thing is not how much energy it is being used, it is the tiny plastic particles that are damaging the environment, the plastic bags wrapping on turtles, etc. Even though other choices might seem not as environmentally friendly during production, it is currently the only way we have on reducing plastic particles.
Microplastics come from mainly washing clothes made from synthetic textiles and tire wear, not necessarily from blocks of plastic materials.
Emissions is definitely the most important thing.
Very thorough presentation for the length. Worth the watch. Well done.
Jokes on you, I've been using my backpack for groceries for 20 years now.
I use boxes provided by the grocery store where I shop. The boxes that they receive their breakfast cereals in are just the right size for me to fill up two boxes and only have to shop once a month. I've had the same 2 boxes for over 10 years.
I continually forget to bring my reusable bags and struggle back to my car with an armful of groceries, only to realise my keys are deep in my pocket
@@emceeboogieboots1608 get a few reusable bags that are designed to be folded away, then shove them in pockets/handbags. My parents' reusable bags also live permanently in the back of the car for shopping trips.
Backpacks rule!
Just use a shopping cart. After checkout put stuff straight back into cart and take that to your car where you keep your bags and boxes.
Lesson learned? The best bag is the one you choose to reuse as much as possible regardless of the type but don’t go with cotton if you don’t already have one
So the answer is definitely not paper, got it
So... What if the cotton bag is made with used clothing?
He literally said you would have to use a cotton bag 7100 times to have less impact. So no, it matters
@@SilentSalad probability pretty good if you were just going to throw it away bc the shirt has a new life
@@SilentSalad If you are not planning on using the clothing anymore, then making a bag out of it is a great way to reuse the material! Thank you for the idea, I think I will start doing this with clothing that can't be donated instead of throwing it in the trash.
Good episode - thank you. This study was presented on NPR's Planet Money, but I was glad to hear it/see it again. Counterintuitive but does seem to make sense when analyzed that reuseable cotton bags have a fairly high environment toll. Agree with many of the suggestions below - use a backpack if you already have one (have personally been doing this for ~30 years); use hemp bags; if you have a cotton bag use it a lot, hand down to kids, and recycle when finished; if you use plastic bags try and use several times and then finish life as a garbage bag, and... if the store will use their own boxes, great. Loved the homemade approach of using old jeans to make new bags - that's maybe the best idea.
I think the take home point is to be more conscious about what we are doing, and that even a seemingly simple environmental problem doesn't have a simple one size fits all solution.
Big picture - what we do with grocery bags is going to have a miniscule effect on climate change and environmental degradation. Reducing animal product consumption, clean energy and greener transportation will have a vastly bigger impact.
For anyone who's crafty:
You can cut single use bags into loops and knit/crochet them into a multi-use bag. If you make enough you can sell them :)
And this is why I take my backpack when shopping, it's usually more than enough but I do have a reusable plastic bag in it just in case.
I do ecxactly the same bro. Also Better for YOUR bag, not just the plastic bags ;)
- i am a fysio by the way. Trust me
Also you do not paying plastic bags if you bring your own, at least that is case in Europe
This is technically very similar to using a cotton bag, but it points out some of the things that the Danish study might have overlooked:
1. Sometimes more rugged bags are better at their job, and more versatile. All of this talk of bag energy efficiency is moot if you're using a cheap plastic back that rips open and smashes something with the embodied energy of 30 cotton bags.
2. Just like people use disposable bags to hold their trash, you can use your backpack for things other than shopping.
Or bring a grandma shopping trolley with you. I'm not particularly strong and the trolley allows me to buy a lot of stuff in one go via public transport. It probably took a lot of resources to make the trolley, but it serves a good practical purpose.
@@segawalilac Haha, anything that helps you grocery shop without a car (or take fewer trips on public transport, freeing up room for others) is worth its embodied energy, since moving a mostly-empty 2-ton vehicle on rubber tires from your home to the grocery store and back costs A LOT of cotton shopping bags.
I made all my reusable grocery bags out of an old bed sheet that my dog accidentally ripped and worn out from many years of use to where I couldn't repair it sewed them up and they work like a charm
heck yeah to that:-))
That’s genius, nice job
My dad has been using the same 3 cotton bags for as long as I remember. Since my memories start at age 5, let's say 14 years.
14 years × 52 grocery trips a year (we go about once a week) that's 728. If that doesn't impact our plastic bag use, I don't know what would.
No, it isn't the consumer's fault at how much plastic pollution there is, but cotton bags are an easy habit to adopt and worthwhile (trips from car to home are lessened for one thing).
I have a set of grocery bags that are made from old denim jeans and coats that were cut up and sewn into patchwork-style bags. They are large and durable, and they look really cool. I also have smaller produce bags made from old beach towels cut into rectangles and sewn together, so I don't have to use the single-use plastic produce bags in the grocery. They are similarly durable and though they are a little heavier than the plastic, I don't mind the extra two pennies I pay when produce is measured by the pound. Both are machine-washable with regular detergent, which I do after every three trips to the grocery.
I got them from a local shop that takes old textiles and turns them into recycled products. They were cheap too; the big bags were $4 each and the produce bags were $1 each.
I've had those bags for literally decades -- since 2002. They have all made hundreds of trips to the grocery store and not a single one of them has worn out. This feels like the best solution to me, since the cloth served the purpose of clothing a human being until it couldn't meet that need anymore, then got a second life hauling food for me.
Had the same 3 "bags for life" heavy plastic bags for about 12 years now. Still going strong!
What do you do when raw meat leaks into the bottom of the bag and starts to stink? I didn't want to put my fresh fruit & veggies into a bag that had salmonella growing in the bottom of it. Nor did I want to put them into the bag after it had been decontaminated with bleach. So I threw it out and went back to single use bags. Too much of a hassle.
@@glynnec2008 I don't eat much meat so that's not too much of a problem. Hot soapy water is usually good enough to clean it when needed though.
Not sure where in the world you're from but salmonella is very rare here in the UK
You go @Pipboy3000 !!! Doing the same !
@@glynnec2008
Uhh, you wash it.
@@glynnec2008 in germany the supermarkets/butchers have to put raw meat in a single use plastic bag due to health reasons - so you dont have to worry about it leaking out.
One can "up-cycle" materials one already has. For example, take an old article of clothing and sew it into a shopping bag. During the pandemic, literally millions of masks were made by hand in thousands of homes using fabrics from old clothes.
And those masks did absolutely nothing to protect people from the virus lol. Good profit though for those that bank on idiots.
I make shopping bags from old clothing and fabric remnants. I also make and give them to friends and family by using them as gift bags for birthday, holiday, and anniversary presents.
My mom did this with jeans. She made bags and purses out of old jeans.
my sister made a bunch out of old fabric she got at a chartiy shop. I've had a couple of them for years now. When it starts to come apart at the seams, i just fix it
and unfortunately, all the "up-cycling" is offset by the millions and millions of masks of all kind (and nitrile/latex gloves) that become litter along roadsides, parking lots, streets, sidewalks, fields, forests, beaches, in the ocean, and everywhere human garbage can end up.
Brilliant video, guys! Thank you for all you do!
How about other cloth materials, like Linen and Hemp?
(Also, if you already have re-usable bags, just keep using them, obviously)
moral of the story: use whatever you have as often as possible until there is nothing left, and then think of an alternative based on your habit
I'm still using the same tote bags my mom bought groceries in before I was even born 25 years ago.
Yeah! I find the new "reusable" bags are so flimsy. The ones my parents had from the 80s have really held up.
And I bet they have also been repaired over the years? Cotton being the only one of the examples in the video that even CAN be repaired...
@@alichi101 they have not. and they are wool. probably even worse than cotton hahaha
We have the (hemp) string bags inherited from my grandmother still in use. And the take up much less space that those new-fangled cotton or plastic bags, and still hold a bunch of stuff, so, it is doable.
This.
This is why I only carry my groceries in the hollowed-out skulls of my enemies
I like the idea of making my own reusable bags out of old clothes.
Just figured out what to do with my worn out jeans 👍
Can you do a video comparing single use plastic bottles to their metal or rigid plastic counterparts in a similar manner?
I'll second this request.
I DO know that aluminum can be recycled into more aluminum a nearly infinite number of times, while many plastic bottles NEVER get recycled even ONCE. So I greatly support aluminum over plastic, any day! As for steel, it also can be recycled many, many times into the same kind of container (or shape or tool or machine parts), too. As for glass, it, too can be reused to make more glass over and over, as well!
Plus, I am one of the small percentage of people that can taste the plastic taste in liquid things kept in plastic containers (sodas, or water, or even condiments), and I don't even drink or eat out of (or with) plastic, as it changes the taste of foods, for me. Just one more reason I support ANYTHING but plastic containers.
Recycling aluminum is a major plus! Requires like 90% less energy to recycle aluminum than it does to produce it from raw materials.
@@MaryAnnNytowl Don't forget the whole point of this video is that it's complicated and heavily relies on life cycle analysis to understand what is most sustainable. Glass and metals are much heavier than plastics and take a lot of heat to form, so they are energy intensive to make and move around. That's the major advantage plastics have by being lightweight and can require less energy to make. The problem is that plastic recycling is not great at the moment and as you said a lot of them don't get recycled. A lot of glass and metals don't get recycled either though. Glass especially is problematic since proper glass recycling requires separation by color which does not happen in the US at least with the prevalence of single stream recycling, so a lot of "recycled" glass gets used ironically as landfill cover or other uses instead of into making new glass.
Plastics are not perfect though, and I get that they definitely are more likely to create off putting tastes for some people. However, there is certainly a place for them as containers if recycling can be done better for them.
Well, since a metal bottle will last forever, it's the best option unless it breaks
I always repurposed my "single use" plastic bags, they were never single use!
Same, I've used the same plastic bag for taking out the recycling for most of a year before.
They're perfect for little trash cans and cleaning out litter boxes!
@@RaydenSavage Ive used single use plastic bags to go shopping again several times. Oldest one at home is 12 years and counting
So then we can stop using the propagandist term "single use" and just call them plastic bags again, right?
EXACTLY! None of these studies or discussions EVER seem to consider that. This was the first ever time I've ever seen it even mentioned. Mine find all sorts of second or third rou d uses before they become a trash bag, saving me from buying trash bags
I bought a bag-keeper last week (that fabric tube you hang up and stuff your plastic bags into so you can use them later) and was surprised how few options were made of thrifted materials. No one needs a brand-new cotton bag, and we've got so much extra cloth lying around thanks to fast fashion. Granted, 90% of it might not be usable for a bag (unless you want to spend labor and resources stitching scraps together), but some of it--larger clothes items, flour bags, sheets, pillowcases--is perfectly reusable for a tote. I do like my tote that is made of a cottony netting. It was from Amazon so obviously not a great eco-conscious manufacturing process, but that style of bag might be good too since it uses much less fabric. Bonus, that string could be made from chopped-up clothes.
Enjoying my ripstop nylon (tent material bags) Ive been using for nearly a decade. No only better than the other options for function but apparently best for the world.
In the end, Aldis comes out ahead by using no bags at all and just giving you their left-over packaging
Not to mention their reusable bags they sell are absolute units that have the same tensile strength as steel rebar.
I often go and don't even need a bag. The boxes they sit in on the shelves are perfect for a grocery trip sometimes. If they have the box trash out, I grab one!
Another tip I hear a lot is putting a laundry basket in your car to fill with the groceries then carry that inside.
@@GoodPersonTestWebsite I've done that it works great, especially if you want to bring the groceries inside in one trip.
And Aldis has the best prices
I would like to see impact comparisons on different types of cloth bags, as well. Because cotton is so resource intensive, but there's so many other ways that I would assume would be better. Other materials like linen, hemp, or using recycled/waste clothing such as second hand clothes or fashion cast-offs (I know a fun tutorial on how to easily sew an only t-shirt in to a reusable bag). It's complicated, sure, but there's so many options that aren't plastic and aren't fresh, non-recycled cotton.
I think a major oversight was plastic fabrics for reusable shopping bags. Polyester, etc. That's what I use.
That's a great point. People want to point fingers at folks trying to make a positive change by using cotton. The real problem was companies who saw an "opportunity" when awareness grew about plastics persisting in the environment. Many rushed to produce cotton bags in unsustainable ways to make a profit, instead of leveraging the glut of available materials for making sustainable bags.
I would add, for those of us who crochet (or those who knit), getting old sweaters or other knit/crocheted clothing items, and taking the yarn from them to crochet (or knit) bags from them. I have made more than one, and love to reclaim yarn from old clothing!
Old jeans make great bags.
Also, I don't think I've come across heavy plastic bags (although it depends on the definition I guess - I'm thinking of the really thick ones, and then there's that in-between group of thicker single-use bags that you get at clothing stores) that didn't advertise that it was made from recycled PET bottles. Which factors into the production "cost" as well (and might even be worse than straight-up made from oil, since the bottles and bags get shipped to China and back).
"Individuals and corporations" is a bit of a false equivalence IMO
I feel like if they had to clarify every single thing like that, the video would be 7 hours long. I don't think they have to tackle every single problem in 1 video. It might be a good idea for a separate video though
@@monkiram Never said they had to clarify "every single thing". It just so happens that the distinction between individual and corporate responsibility for environmental problems is one of the most important.
The corporations are making things for the individuals, no-one else.
@@therealcaldini O RLY?
Individuals acting in good faith will attempt to follow Hank's advice here, but ultimately, are not responsible for the majority of greenhouse gas emissions or waste products. Corporations will essentially *never* act in good faith here because they're all taking advantage of the tragedy of the commons, while being the ones actually producing the majority of waste.
Thanks for coming back Hank
Since cotton has such a huge environmental impact, maybe people could do more by buying fewer clothes.
If we ever get a product better than cotton for clothes, I'll use it. Wool and polyester are terrible.
@@culwin I think they mean "just buy less clothes"
@@junholee4961 Oh, yeah. But wouldn't it be cool if we could 3D print clothes.
@@culwin Ooohhhh love the idea
A big part of the problem is the fast fashion industry. They throw away tons of clothing which doesn't get purchased. And the industry is rife with human rights and environmental abuses. And we can't even figure out the details of how or where particular garments are produced, as the companies don't have to have much in the way of transparency.
Using my cotton bags for 20+ years now, still feeling good about that.
Yes, 25 years here.
99.99 % of people will not use them enough. Far better off using lightweight plastic shopping bags and then reusing them for trash and other purposes. Btw, what do you throw you trash into? Single use plastic bags you buy in a box?
How do you recycle cotton cloth bags? What BS.
This guy has no idea of what he is talking about. The Danish government, the GREENEST country in the world, said in its life cycle analysis in 2018, use lightweight plastic shopping bags (what is mistakenly called here "single use plastic bags") and the reuse them for trash and other purposes. And to prevent littering with these bags, use paper for takeout restaurants and convenient stores, as virtually all lightweight plastic shopping bag litter comes from these sources. All litter surveys show lightweight plastic shopping bag litter does not come from SUPERMARKETS!!!
@@k.w.1459 Nice! I made mine out of old t-shirts, but we're only a few years in. :)
A couple years ago, we switched *back* to using single-use plastic bags when we do our grocery shopping. The reason is that we actually re-use those bags as trash can liners (for like the small trash cans in our bathrooms) and to pick up dog poops in our backyard, as opposed to buying separate single-use bags specifically for those purposes. We still have dog poop bags for when we take our dog on walks, but the fact that we don't use those to clean up her poops in our backyard allows us to stretch the supply much longer. So unless a grocery bag is all torn up or dirty (from leakage from a meat product or something like that), we stash it in a cupboard in our garage and re-use it whenever we need a small bag for other trash. Hopefully, our plastic bag use is reasonably environmentally friendly.
"we studied the impact of plastic bags and left out the only reason why they are criticized"
exactly 🤦♂️
Its almost like that isnt the Danish Environmental Protection Agency's mission, and there's 10,000 agencies that do do research on those reasons why plastic bags are criticized.
This is why I love my massive hemp bags. Hemp has a better yield than cotton, is stronger, and we use the things like crazy. We easily use them several hundred times a year, just because they work so well. The size also makes them easier to use, which you wouldn't think about until you have it.
Ah, hemp bags! I'm going to look into that.
According to the departments of public health of the States of New York and California you need to wash and dry your reusable bag after every use. How is using all that detergent water and energy green? And then do you use a bought plastic garbage bag? What bag do you throw you garbage into? All serious studies on lifecycle analysis of bags say use lightweight plastic bags and reusing them for trash and other purposes is the most green by a huge margin. Not even close to anything else. And litter surveys show these bags from supermarkets almost never become litter. Virtually all the bag litter comes from takeout restaurants and convenient stores. Those outlets should distribute paper. But supermarkets, most definitely lightweight plastic bags.
@@allenmoses110 no one actually washes thier bags after every use. I personally only wash them if sometihng spills in/on them.
The public /govt/ social decision to make HEMP illegal over the past 100 or so years in the US was devastating.. Bad policy.. all due to greed and power to push for paper over Hemp
@@caelidhg6261 thought it was done by levis
I would be really interested in a similar episode about clothing! There's tons of sometimes contradictory information around, particularly about synthetic materials (do they release tons of microplastics every time you wash them? How bad a problem is that?), and it can be hard to find citations for things.
Up. I'd be very interested in this too.
Also what are the envirmental impacts for other plant based fibers. What about hemp or jute or bamboo. I have sheets supposedly made out of European beech is that a real thing or just a novelty to make them stand out versus cotton sheets?
good question
@@aaronsmith5864 Hemp is actually a net gain for the environment; soaks up loads of carbon, fast growing, uses less water, improves soil when cut off leaving roots to compost, leaves are stripped at harvest to do the same, and the fastest growing and strongest fibres on the planet so everything lasts for decades. Would kill the fast fashion industry dead [hurray!], replace cotton with its imputs of chemical and water, and hemp can be grown even in marginal soil.
I actually have loo paper made fom bamboo - ouch! Only kidding.
@@aaronsmith5864 Yes, that's a thing. Might be lyocell? If I recall correctly, what happens is that tree pulp is reduced to cellulose fibres, then those fibres are spun/woven. This is also the case with other rayons, but lyocell is fairly environmentally friendly. This is all from memory, so it might be a bit off.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rayon
enourmosly great video! Thanks!
really love this video, thank you for the nuance
Love the environmentally focused episodes, guys! As I continue to strive for a zero-waste lifestyle, information like this is so helpful. I think I'll make some grocery bags out of thrifted shirts now...
I'd love to see you make a video of custom making those (maybe with a matching doll...?) haha
I found it a bit disappointing that the end of life section was difficult to get any good metrics on. You might have to use a cotton bag 7,000 times, but how does that compare to 7,000 plastic bags littering the planet?
It was surprising that the footprint for plastic alternatives was so large, but on the flip side of that coin, it wasn't very clear if the study included the extraction of the oil as part of the plastic bag's impact, or it was just the manufacturing process. But the video definitely gave some food for thought.
On the bright side, 100% cotton bags don't have plastic in them, so if you throw them in the wash they won't release any microplastic fibers into the water, unlike most modern textiles...
Just burn them, you'll get heat too. Microplastics can kill our food supply. Global warming will open up new areas to grow food..
@@Bryan-Hensley with the uncertainty with both of your claims, i don't believe you can confidantly say them. Truth is, we dont know what microplastics do to biologic organism. They haven't been noted as significant killers of plant life, and microplastics seem relatively inert when they're small enough to plenty of researchers. Not saying they're *definitely* safe, but point #2 drives this uncertainty into higher importance.
Global warming, with climate change included, damages plant life and removes agricultural land. Sea level rise, and highly variable temperature are noted as significantly decreasing global crop yeild. While uncertaint exists here too, it's looking more likely that global warming is, overall, going to hurt crop yeild significantly
It's the same thing with EVs. Older gasoline cars get rebuild over and over. Many will still be on the road 30 years later. EVs on the other hand are pretty much disposable. Manufacturing EVs is much more harmful in virtually every category except for the old tired and true metal mechanical parts. EVs are the cotton bags and plastic bags combined.
*looking at the cotton bag I've had for 15 years and stitched together several times*
I think I know my answer.
There are still people who can sew and repair! Thought I was one of a few.
Ah, Rosario Vampire, a classic.
@Jason Bequette there are many many factors to these numbers and you need to put some sort of weight to the factors. I have decided on slightly different weighting on different aspects of the ecology of the product, so wile I recognise that a cotton bag has to be used a LOT I still detest platic bags for what they are. And ESPECIALLY will continue to use it to the bitter end of it no longer carrying the weight of my groceries ,now that I already have it.
Thanks, but you need to do it for twice as much longer.
I think a lot of pride can be had in keeping something for so long and repairing it along the way. It’s a lost art.
I tend to reuse and repurpose old things. A lot of my sewing projects for school were made of old fabric scraps from my mom's previous sewing projects. I've also made plenty of things out of old jeans and T-shirts. I buy most of my clothes from thrift stores, and that's not just because it's cheaper that way. I even bought my prom dress from a thrift store. When I get paper assignments returned after they've been graded, I'll use the backs as scratch paper, shopping lists, etc. And once there's nothing left that I can use it for, I'll shred it up and compost it, along with any food that's gone bad, and use the compost to replenish the soil for my garden. Some brands of lunch meat package their products in reusable plastic containers. While most people I know just throw them away, I use them to store leftovers, or to pack food on the go. Every time I go shopping, I save the plastic bags to use when I'm emptying out my bathroom garbage can, or cleaning the litter box. If the grocery bag gets a hole in it, I'll keep it in a box. And once the box is full, I'll take the bags and weave them together to make mats, and then I'll donate those mats to various places. Homeless shelters, animal shelters, and anywhere else that is in need of a door mat but can't afford to buy a new one. They also make for pretty good yoga mats too. I don't have recycling in my area, but if I did, I'd use that too. For now, I just crush all the trash that I can't reuse so that I can fit more inside a single trash bag. I also use a plastic grocery bag as a cover for my bike seat so it can stay dry in the rain. It also helps in case a bird decides to make a pit stop on my bike. I rarely buy pajamas with shirts; I just use my old T-shirts as pajama shirts, and then I just have to deal with making sure I have pajama pants. I also use my pajama pants until they literally fall apart; since I don't wear them outside of my own house I don't need them to look good. I ride my bicycle pretty much everywhere I go; it takes longer to get places but it's so much better for both the environment and my wallet. As a whole, I'd like to think that I'm a very eco-friendly person. Are there things I could do better? Probably. But am I a lot better than my parents when it comes to my carbon footprint? Absolutely.
I had to rewind the video to make sure I hadn’t missed it, but what I was hoping to hear about wasn’t in the video: the impact of the production of oil/petroleum within the life cycle analysis of single use plastic bags. It’s an egregious oversight to include the production and agriculture for cotton bags or biodegradable plastic bags, and yet not everything it takes to obtain the material used to make single use plastic products. Regardless if the mistake is on the part of the researchers of the life cycle analyses, or the content creators of this video, this is a crucial piece in the puzzle that cannot and should not be forgotten.
I’ve had the same set of heavy cotton canvas bags for 35 years. I’ve had to resew one seam. They are still in good shape.
There's also the fact that most reusable bags are studier so they hold more than one disposable plastic bag could. So each single use of the reusable bag saves many disposable bags.
up to four times the amount of a single use ones, minimum. at least the ones i used to use. they costed a dollar. each one could hold six two liter bottles of soda. the single use bags tend to be flimsy, taking more then one to keep the stuff in them from ripping through. each of the reusable ones lasted me a few years too.
This is just as true of the old single use paper bags, but all these use cases ignore how retail trains people bagging products at checkout. Many are the times, regardless of bag type, I've noted upon arrival at my car or once I got home that they under filled the bags and just used more bags than needed. Sometimes, this is to the level of a single light package, out of many, of meat being placed into a single bag by itself (mildly annoying in small, fragile single use bags, near rage inducing in a large mulit-use one).
@@chiblast100x In Germany staff doesn't bag my products at checkout. I put them back into the shopping cart or whatever bag/basket I brought with me. I was shopping at Wall Mart in Mexico two years ago. I had to say "Sin bolsa por favor." like 3-5 times before they stopped bagging my stuff.
@@georgf9279 Yeah, each time I'm in the US and buy some small stuff, I always have my backpack with me - gotta tell them each time that I don't need bags.
@@georgf9279 That sounds about right. Here in the US unless one uses the self check lanes and thereby bags stuff oneself, there are times baggers will straight out ignore reusable bags unless bought at the time... negating the point of reusable.
In my household we use a fabric bag that was passed to me by my mother, who in turn got it from her father. It was made by my great-grandmother but she never actually used it, just gifted it to her son, so I don't count her as a user. Still, that's 3 generations of people using the same fabric bag. If that's not eco-friendly I don't know what is.
Plastic bags are recycled here in Japan in the two separate plastic sorting. One is peyton or PET FOR normal plastic bottles, and Pura which is short for plastics, and we put our styrofoam, thinner plastics, plastic straws, bottle caps, and bags.
Remember to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. In that order.
Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Repair, Recycle.
@@alsmith358 exactly the right order!
or y'all will regret.
Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Repair, Repurpose, Recycle.
Which also includes reducing your animal product consumption. It's the single biggest impact you can have on the environment even though no one wants to acknowledge it.
The; "Winner = It's Complicated!" was a great line and also pretty accurately sums up the video 😂
It's not at all complicated as I have shown above.
My mom just doesn't use bags. She saves boxes from products that whe'd purchased anyway and just continuously reuses those. I usually just try to move things direct from the cart to the car with no bag or anything lol
About 15 years ago I bought four sturdy shopping bags that are made from thick but flexible plastic. Handles and body are all of one piece. There are no sharp corners. They are so solid that they can stand on their own. They could easily be stood next to each other in the trunk of a car which I don’t have.
They cannot be folded but can be stacked inside each other.
Since the day I bought them I have used those bags for all my shopping and they are none the worse for wear. They are among my most cherished possessions, and I would not want to do without them.
I expect to use them for the rest of my life, and when that is done I am sure they could serve another person for their entire life, provided they are handled with a bit of care.
For the life of me, I cannot imagine a more perfect solution for the shopping bag problem.
I really liked it when my grocery store offered their used boxes for us customers for free. I never used a bag, always used the cardboard boxes then recycled them, but the store stopped doing it because they were not profiting from it. Which sucks, because it is just skimping when you're making people pay 5-10 cents a bag.
Really wish they'd bring that back.
I've been using a backpack combined with a small ikea bag for like forever, not so much for the environment but to to save money and the fact that carrying on your back and shoulder is easier and leaves both arms open. You also lose the risk of them breaking as an added bonus.
Great idea!
A charity I volunteer for, had a few thousand woven hemp bags donated to them by a kindly benefactor. The charity prides itself on being green, not just being seen to be green but actually being eco friendly. The bags are branded with the charity’s name, logo & charity number. However, the inside of the bag is thinly coated with a film of mailable plastic. Which seems to harden over a few months of use, which then flakes off.
At first I saw this as some sort of marketing ploy. A seeming green bag that is initially waterproof but no. I found out, the bag’s material is thusly coated, because the initial customer is a manufacturer of printed bags. Their chosen inks are water based to be ‘green’ but said inks would bleed from one woven strand to another before the inks set. So the bag manufacturer buys the core materials as pre-coated giant rolls. They do this as they can’t know in advance, where exactly the ink/s will be needed to be printed on every bag, given that they make many different shaped bags and the print designs are many and varied. More cost effective, to simply have everything they buy-in, come pre-coated. They can then truthfully, if only partially true, state that they make eco friendly products; as they don’t manufacture the core material, they just buy it from a different manufacturer.
My mom used the same cotton bag for vegetables, groceries, and even for carrying LPG cylinders since 1994-95. And the bag is still sturdy and in a great condition.
There's plenty of bags at thrift stores. Already made and looking for a home. Wash properly and you're good to go. We don't need to buy new bags and we definitely don't need to keep making bags, there's already more than enough to go around.
YES, this!
Everyone, please, I am BEGGING you, please CONSUME LESS,
You can also make bags out of other stuff at home or from the thrift store. People give stuff away a lot too. If you mention that you're looking for something, people will often say they have extra, or connect you with someone else. As long as it isn't an excuse for them to get more stuff. Free stuff groups on Facebook are great too. But I think making square-bottom bags out of used-up jeans is the coolest
Facebook Marketplace has a bazillion people trying to get rid of them too.
That iswhat Ido too. I go to thrift stores and look for cotton book bags for like .50 cents each or so. bring them home wash them up and put them out in the truck for my next Aldis Haul :).
I think you missed literally everything
Old clothes-> repurpose-> clothes bag
Or: bags from fibers that are agricultural byproducts like banana fiber or jute.
I second the use of sturdy plastic bags here. We have a drawer at home with about a dozen of the things. They get used for many years. I think I have one I remember using in the late nineties.
Neat video! Thanks for uploading!
What I learned: I was big-brained in buying a reusable plastic bag instead of a cotton one without even knowing it
Guys, chill out in the replies. At least I was trying to do something for the environment instead of using hundreds of single-use plastic bags. Plastic may take hundreds of years to decompose but think about the damage that pesticides and other resources used to grow cotton has on the environment. Like the video said: it's complicated.
Also, I literally said nothing about having a problem with cotton bags. If you think you'll use it enough to offset the impact, then go for it.
I mean, I got some killer recycled cotton bags when visiting Germany. Probably about 500 uses each at this point. Plus they're weird.
The problem with plastic (that isn't concidered in this study) is that it doesn't decompose for hundereds od years and in those years it hurts animal and plant life. And it decomposes into microplastics which also have harmful effects.
@@doraspoljar697 This, plus the nurdles used to make the bags often get washed into waterways.
Also depends on where in the world you are... Here in Austria all plastic gets either recycled or is burned with other residential waste so plastic bags ending up in rivers and lakes are very rare
From a short sighted perspective maybe. Without a way to get rid of it its not a feasible solution at all, and efficiency of infeasible solutions is irrelevant
You know what the study didn't factor in? Double bagging. Many grocers will automatically double (plastic) bag certain items for you like milk and meat. And they tend to underfill plastic bags. On the flip side, grocers tend to over stuff cotton canvas bags because they are more sturdy and people usually do not bring a million of them to the grocery store.
Yup. I have no issues filling and overfilling my canvas totes while with plastic, especially the flimsy kind used in North America, I tend to underfill because a tear can make the bag unusable in the middle of a trip home.
@@adorabell4253 I know, right? Just between double bagging and overstuffing, I figure that you can cut those numbers by a factor of atleast five. Also, I think that cotton bags better lend themselves to other eco-friendly activities, like walking to the grocery store or using the public library.
@Inf1928 H I figured that the study controlled for size even though it wasn't mentioned in the video. I just wanted to bring up that normal usage of plastic bags includes double bagging and under stuffing while typical usage of canvas bags typically includes stuffing them to the brim partially because the bags are much stronger and partially because they can be carried more ergonomically on the shoulder instead of in the hand and partially because people bring a limited number of them to the store.
@@adorabell4253 also this study didn't mention microplastics once. All plastic when it "breaks down" doesn't really break down at all. Instead it just ends up in microscopic particles that penetrate everything in the environment. Ii Gail to see how that alone wouldn't balance out the environmental impact of a canvas tote a bit more.
@@strayiggytv The Danish one didn't take it into account because their assumption was that all plastic bags would be used as trash bags and then incinerated to produce energy. There were a lot of issues with the study in terms of applicability to real life.
As someone who as cared about their environmental impact and wants to structure their life in a way to care even more I really appreciated this episode. Totally blown away by cotton's numbers and I always wondered about comparing paper to plastic. Maybe I could spin patching and repairing my old reusable bags as cooler than replacing them with new eco-snazzy bags. I'm not cheap, I'm hip. Yeah, that's the ticket.
I worked in IT for years. Promotional bags (and t-shirts) were staple giveaways at conventions. Haven't bought a shopping bag in ages.
Jokes on all of you, I've been using the multi-layer folds of my stomach to make a skin-grocery-skin sandwich as I waddle to my car for years now
big brain move
Finnaly a bag that is good for the envoirment
Nice
Well... That skin took resources to get that way.
@@GajanaNigade No, my skin is 100% sourced from corpses at my local morgue. I have 0 carbon footprint. They were just gonna throw this stuff away
I don't know how many times my cotton bags have been used. We got most of them from my parents. Multi-generational grocery bags. 😂
What material are your bags made from?
Memories.
When I see customer bags being placed on the store’s counter to be loaded by the clerk I wonder where that bag has been previously placed, such as on the ground near the car or the floor of a car or a garage or kitchen floor. Then my groceries are placed in the same area to be packed.
@@kathrynstalder4702 that's a strange thing to be worried about. Unless you're putting unwrapped produce on the till counter, what does it even matter?
@@kathrynstalder4702 I mean, alright, but are you washing your food and your hands when you prepare meals? If so, then it doesn't really matter.
@@kathrynstalder4702 you do NOT want to know where your produce came from then...
On a related note, my friend whose cousins run a family farm will not touch loaded potato skins with a 10 ft fork....
"single use plastic? - you can use them again. The trick is to open them from the top when you take your purchases out (same opening you used to put things INTO the bag).
In Spain is super common for grandmas to use little vertical trolleys which have just enough room for a 2 person shopping list and last years and years. I bought one a couple of years ago and it looks like it will last a lot
Let's make edible candy bags
Need to clean after use before consumption
by measures of overweight population....we already do that..
That would be a nightmare in the rain.
@@satakrionkryptomortis good observation
I like the way you think Mr Squirrel
The fashion industry trows away so much of their clothes each season,what if they used that to make the cotton bags..It would make a huge difference.
Problem is that most clothing are blends so they can’t be recycled
However they can be reused by remaking the material itself into a bag. The real problem is that once the consumer has the clothing it’s not the company’s problem anymore
And no one wants to dig into that dump of clothes
The best we can do as consumers is to reuse our clothing to the best we can and to reduce the amount we buy. As well as telling others to do the same
@@qazplm3845 I imagine, however, that the reference was to the unsold clothing. Fast fashion is an environmental catastrophe well before it reaches consumers.
Buy one shirt less for the cotton reusable bag, and it's net zero
@@hawleyrigsby3123 fast fashion is a huge problem. Not sure how to "fix" that.
That's so silly! People are so obsessed with what's 'fashionable' that they throw away perfectly good clothes?! Disgraceful! I mean, they could just give them away to people who need them. Throwing them away is just so wasteful and unnecessary!
I was just thinking I should mention using "single use" bags as trash bags when it came up in the video, good job scishow
I am making Green choices by watching SciShow with Hank.