In our era of ecological and environmental awakening, the question of paper or plastic bags should be considered seriously. Everyone uses bags; everybody has this choice. Why do we have a choice? It is a question of environmental impact, and it should be the responsibility of us all to make the most ecologically aware, and sound decision. It seems like it should be an easy choice, but there's an incredible number of details and inputs hidden in each bag. Properties and benefits of plastic packaging outcast any other type of packaging straight away but it’s only the misleading and false environmental advantage that is normally associated with paper bags. From durability and reusability to life cycle costs, there's a lot more to each bag than meet the eye. Let's take a look behind these bags.

Paper, of course, comes from trees causing a huge environmental cost. Further, the process of making paper bags causes 70% more atmospheric pollution than plastic bags. Paper bags use 300% more energy to produce, and the process uses huge amounts of water and creates very unpleasant organic waste. When they degrade they emit methane and carbon dioxide. Paper bag production use and disposal results in 3.3 times the greenhouse gas emissions associated with polyethylene bags. The global-warming impact of paper bag use is almost twice that of conventional plastic bags.(California Master Environmental Assessment March 2010 page 31).