Reusing plastic carrier bags is greenest, finds life-cycle study

摘要

Conventional, flimsy plastic carrier bags and more durable 'bag for life' plastic carriers take some beating as the best environmental option, according to a life-cycle analysis by the Environment Agency.1 The analysis was started in 2004 to study the environmental impacts of different carrier bags across a range of impacts, including global warming potential, resource depletion, acidification, eutrophication, toxicity and photochemical oxidation contribution to air pollution (ENDS Report 353, p 37). Overall, extraction of resources and production made a bigger contribution to a bag's life-cycle impacts than transport to supermarkets and disposal. Bag reuse also determined the extent of their impacts.