Good breakdown of some factors that affect and are effected by grocery bags. I thought the calculation with carbon footprint and reuse number was quite clever. What isn't talked about in this video is what the continuing reliance on fossil fuels means for the LARGER picture of planet-life well-being (LCA), and which farming/land-use method was taken into account when considering carbon footprint and biodegradability. Burning natural gas or coal has local biological impacts that may cause instability amongst ecological systems further away. We don't like breathing in smog or drinking polluted water, let alone birds, etc. The average human consumes on average ~5 grams of plastic a week (so a credit card), a substance that neither our bodies nor the greater environment has had to process before (i.e. non-biodegradable). The land-use methods I am referring to include conventional/monoculture vs. regenerative/Regrarian/permaculture practices. I'm not sure it's as easy to say that when harvesting cotton or trees, one is pulling out all of the carbon that was previously locked away. If the soil is in a proper state, much of the carbon remains there for other plants to use (carbon sequestration). I don't want people to fall back on plastic just because of a number that seemingly correlates different materials (g of CO2e). Things are much more complex, and we all can help each other sort through it. At the least, I hope this video gets people talking about where their grocery bags come from. Happy holidays!
With the way things are now, it would still take us years to develop a technology for making bags that are environment-friendly and safe for all living beings.
It's not necessarily the location. It's the source of the electricity whether it's renewable or nonrenewable, and what is the impact of the source of energy on the environment.
@@Friendship1nmillion Well since we have a screwed up MP and PMs that thinks the people's health isn't worth to stop fracking in QLD and NT, Drilling oil in the Bight, and building new coal powered plants everywhere, we don't have these bags.
I really don't understand. Whenever I go shopping, I bring a backpack or a basket. If I need to buy vegetables, fruits or bakery products I bring a few plastic bags from home
I would choose Cotton, its a bit complicated, (you dont need to read the rest) in my country, farming can earn any guy a lot of money but, government doesnt give af about it, so economy is dying, but when you buy cotton, you support the farmers, this will maybe let anyone bring a bit more food to his family, I dont know what are your ideas though
@@gettingshotsomeonesgonnapa8635 trees are a renewable resource. managed forests trees. not rainforest trees. managed forests are carbon neutral. but they dont mention paper producion used a lot of water.
@@gettingshotsomeonesgonnapa8635 it is complicated is right!. one assumes they get fair prices for the cotton, and the weavng and dying process isnt too toxic (but thats gos for the rest too) but its often forgot and starving and freezing man will kill the last animal or burn the very last tree in his desperation. IF one spends money on a bag, might as well support the small scale afarmers, rather than mutlimillion dollar industry, where the ceo gets maybe more profit than a entire countries tax revenues.. we can save the planet AND the people who inhabit it. i think most of humanity can multi task atleast 2 things
Am I the only one who feels the conclusion a bit hasty? I was basically: "Hey, here is this bag that combines the benefits of all other bags". Ehm.. ok, doesn't it also combine all of the disadvantages? Also, I feel like a few options are neglected, like.. you know... a backpack, that you have anyway. Also, for plastic you mentioned coal powered facilities. Are they coal powered everywhere or only in the US?
@@jtwei7101 most simple explanation is that things break down because it's eaten by the bacteria, fungi and bugs in the soil which need oxygen to grow. No oxygen -> microorganisms can't grow -> natural products aren't eaten/broken down
I remember back when I was in school in the early 90s, my teachers told us that plastic bags were better for the environment than paper because it saved trees. Pretty sure almost NOBODY even considered back then where the plastic went after we threw it away.
Why use a bag at all? Bring your own damn thing, either basket or backpack or whatever, to carry your stuff. Bags are quite pricy here in Germany so people don't usually buy them. I personally bought a high quality insulated shopping basket I use for everything I have to transport that doesn't fit in my backpack. A little bit of regulation doesn't hurt anyone.
@@GoogleAccount-oe9im well yeah, taxes are not good. You can’t solve every problem with a tax. You can encourage people to reuse plastic bags, but you can’t force them to.
@@dr.apollo4226 you discourage throwing bags away when they are no longer free. You can encourage alternatives by selling sturdy plastic/cotton bags for a month prior/after the tax comes into effect.
I still have the first cotton shopping bag that I bought in 1982 from a Greenpeace stall in my town. It is still in regular use, albeit having been patched a few times. I think it’s more than paid for its environmental cost 😎
It would be a much easier decision if instead of wood we finally legalized hemp to make paper that way. also we could be using old clothes to stich together cotton bags.
@@priyankaagarwal2943 seriously, here? It's okay that you have a political opinion, but please think about where you post it. This is an educational channel. Try not to bring politics here.
It’s good to take a closer look at what we use in our everyday life! Currently got other projects on the go, but I’m pretty sure that by spring I will be using shopping bags I have crochet for myself... now to find a yarn better for the environment to make this happen!.
I love the idea @@helenjohannesman9165, but if a carrier bag is still usable as a carrier bag i don’t think it’s necessarily an environmentally friendly approach (Use twenty plastic bags to make one plastic crocheted bag?) There is also the matter of the fact plastic bags aren’t as strong as they used to be... and I’m not keen on making disposable items. That said I have seen VHS tapes used, which is good as vhs players are on the decline, but the finished product would be rough on the hands. Likely to be recycling clothes... definitely like the recycling idea.
T-shirt yarn is great for this. You can go to a clearance area of a thrift store and find the largest, ugliest shirt possible to make a fairly large ball of yarn. Or ask the staff if they know of any pieces they are going to have to throw away that you can take off their hands. Then you just need a fairly large crochet hook and you could make several bags of varying sizes. Alternatively for people who are intimidated by crocheting or the potential time commitment, I feel like a modified macrame style (strategic knots) could work.
@@JohannaInTheCorner where you successful? What type of plastic bags are you using? I'm from Germany and we get no free bags since decades. We have to buy it and the only options are the sturdy ones. So you only buy it when you actually forget one. By using 20 weak bags you could actually make one really strong bag. That's basically the first step the industry does to form carbon sheets for example. They are interlaced and depending on the further use you use a special pattern that can stretch in a certain direction or withstand big tension forces.
@@BlueFlash215 thank you so much for calling me on this 🥰. For the record I have only just finished one of my ongoing small projects… so your timing is most relevant! (There’s other ongoing projects but they’re all too big to be my only project!) My optimism knows no bounds. I have not been out shopping since the start of COVID. I have not needed shopping bags to go shopping… yet. I haven’t made a bag as of yet, but the idea has not as yet been expunged from my thoughts, only last week I was exploring ‘thermal stitch’ which is perfect for a handle as it doesn’t stretch too much! In the U.K. shops can supply carrier bags, at a cost of 10p each. Right now I can access a scheme that allows me to recycle carriers at the same rate… so I am where possible recouping my losses that way. I still have a number of strong bags I can use should I desire to go shopping… so I’m not rushing into it (obviously). I have been using recycled cotton yarn recently, and am hoping to get my hand on recycled silk as this should be softer to handle (and more compact for porting.)
Bags made from plastics of any kind come from non-renewable sources. We can grow more cotton and trees, not more oil. And don't forget the process of extracting oil from the earth is itself environmentally risky if not outright damaging in itself, and occasionally it's catastrophic. I think TED needs to recalculate environmental impact.
I wish you would show a timeline on which how long each bag would have to be used in order to achieve the smallest possible impact overall. And what that total cost would be in relation to the others. Great info though :)
Surely I can imagine that. Ultimately, it's the individuals at micro level who need to change instead of blaming govt or authorities at macro levels to do eveything, though institutional assistance is needed till a certain level.
EVEN IF you recycle it, the material in the flimsy plastic only gets repurposed once at most. So it sticks around for hundreds of years after the second use.
Ocean will be no more ocean it will become more like plastic stock and almost all aquatic species in ocean will be in danger.But I heard somewhere there's a bacteria who can decompose plastic but if not it is sure that something bad is going to happen.we have to do something about it soon as you we are the cause so.....
The US and Europe put an extremely small amount of plastic in the ocean. Most of the plastic comes from China and India. www.dw.com/en/almost-all-plastic-in-the-ocean-comes-from-just-10-rivers/a-41581484 The truth is the EU and US helping China reduce plastic in their rivers would be far more beneficial than the US and EU banning plastic grocery store bags.
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I don’t use any bag, metal cart, the load the stuff up. The employees always hassle me thinking i’m a thief, they should know me by now though, i could just reuse bags that doesn’t mean I didn’t steal just because i don’t have bags
Just use your backpack. You don't need to buy another bag just for groceries. They usually tend to last for a long time and they serve more purposes than just carrying the groceries.
I've been using a thick plastic bag for three years, and it's so much sturdier than anything else I've used. Glad to know these are more environment-friendly, too. Also happy to see that they're becoming more popular. I remember 5 years ago, I'd never even seen one; now I see them being sold at most Walmart and Wilko stores (and more importantly, I see people using them!), and it's quite heartening. Great video, as always! ❤
First the one on Oat milk and now this. Thank you for these informative and entertaining videos. I have switched to Oat Milk cause after watching video from you ! I have always also been re-using plastic bags so hopefully very low carbon footprint.
you probably didn't go to oat milk for your health, but there is certainly evidence pointing towards prostate cancer and consuming mammal dairy after childhood.
@@chrismcgowan5180 well why for health? Did you think it has some consequence? Then the truth is that everything has some consequences. You can't call something completely bad but the biggest thing is that study is not fact. Study only promote more research not a result. So don't believe any study before it's proper research. Because sometimes even a expert would wrong in it's theory and others are right. But if it has some consequences with full proof. Then i also want to listen it.
@@HerMi.T If you read what I said, 'there is evidence pointing towards'.... (quite a lot actually), I did not fall down on a hard position. I am a medical doctor, so I do consider myself able to read and appraise medical litrature and meta-analyses.
I remember a whale watching trip up in Maine that really changed my outlook on what I use everyday. I was told by friends and the guides that you may not get to see anything out on these trips. Luckily, we spotted a beautiful humpback whale that kept diving in and out of the water. It put on a great show for us and made a lasting impact on me. Once you witness how beautiful nature is its hard to contribute any harm to it anymore.
The part about paper bags is completely inaccurate. Most paper mills around the world run on 100% recycled paper. Paper, and especially cardboard, can be recycled up to 15 times before fibre degradation is so high that it gets lost in the process. A simple call to a paper mill would have given you this information. I know because I worked for a mill that recycled 900,000 tonnes of paper annually. So, please recalculate.
Moral of the story: The production of "environmentally-friendly" bags made of durable materials like fabrics are significantly more pollutant than plastic bags, but are reused many more times. If you want to most effectively reduce the carbon footprint of bags, use a single plastic bag for as long as you can. Maybe try and find a plastic bag that is designed to be reusable in terms of durability. If you really think you can, get a fabric bag and make it last for years. Some grocery stores give high-quality plastic bags; collect those.
Logical flaw, Ted! Cutting down trees have no negative impact if you plant new ones, and paper is bio degradable so the co2 ends up in the soil unless you burn the bag!
You're the incorrect one here. Tress take a long time to grow. Old, established forests store far far more carbon dioxide than new ones. Furthermore, we all know trees are being cut down at a far faster rate than they're being planted. And cutting down trees has more impacts than just the carbon
@@user-vf8oq4qf4r The new trees will be new trees eventually. It's a cycle that will keep a constant co2 level over time. The problem is when trees are cut down without new ones being planted. But unless your paper bag was made from those trees, no. And sure, it takes some gas to cut down a tree, but the point Ted made was that the co2 from the tree would go out in the air, which simply isn't true as long as you don't burn the paper bag.
Now do a rough estimate of the carbon footprint of all the goods transported into markets, supermarkets, chemists, shops everywhere, in cardboard boxes, most of which are crushed and sent to paper down-cycling or landfill. Terrifying
Then why don’t you go to your bosses and tell them you always see the bags rip easily and suggest they make them tougher and people would t have to double bag, 🤷🏼♀️ ever been half way home and the bag ripped when you have several? Not a good experience! And no where to put anything from the ripped bag, But let’s try shame the shoppers and not Kroger’s useless bags😂
Most people don't even use bags here in Germany. It goes straight from the cart to a basket in your car. And if you're carrying it, most have very strong cloth bags. Plastic bags are virtually unavailable anymore and if you want one, you have to pay for it.
@@chelleyd4020 Try carrying 30 kg of groceries 5 km to get home. I for one don't own a car and use either a basket on my bike or a backpack. There's nothing wrong using a car to transport goods. Just buy an electric car.
Biodegradablility is BAD for climate change!! The 1.6kg of carbon figure of a plastic bag comes only from if the factory is powered by coal, which is a very unfair assumption to make. If powered by renewables, the only carbon that is used to make the bag is stored in polymers in the bag itself. Polyethylene is also extremely unreactive, and if disposed of properly, e.g in landfills and not in the ocean, the plastic acts as a carbon sink for millions of years, keeping carbon out of the atmosphere. Again, biodegradability is BAD for greenhouse gas emissions!! Sure, plastic can harm our ecosystems, but this is a much easier problem to solve via simple cleanup, with proper laws and regulation, than pulling trillions of tons of carbon out of the atmosphere that would be produced if plastic were biodegradable!
At 2:37 you appear to have gotten your math wrong. If your values are to be believed, you need to reuse a cotton bag 170 times to sit even with the carbon footprint of a plastic bag. However I believe this was a deliberate attempt to misrepresent the facts. In the first example, you give the amount of resuses required for a paper bag to be more eco friendly than plastic. In the cotton example however, you use the phrase "similarly reduce", which is technically true, as the footprint of the cotton bag is "reduced" to only 2.08kg per use. I hope that this was a simple mistake and not another in an endless series of eco-centered lies perpetuated by our media.
this really doesn't account for people like my mum, who always forgets her cloth bags, buys more, then throws the old ones out caz she has too many....keep trying to tell her to just use plastic but cloth is "better" for the environment.
Yes, tropical trees whom are producing more oxygen ( than subtropical trees ) aren't used for producing papers too, the log is too thick. At least thicker than oak and birch and etc, so paper bag is quite an alternative if you have to choose between plastic or temporary cotton tote bag
They also ignored that the trees and cotton do the photosynthesis, whinch gives negative carbon footprint. I know that if plantations of trees and cotton didn't existed, there would be some wild life in this area whinch would do the same, but I think photosintesis done by wild plants is less effective because plants farmed by humans are healthier and are replaced if they are old. Sorry for my english.
Agreed with Pouly_4531 here, the regrowing of trees use energy, water and time too. I personally think the worst thing about paper bag environmental-wise is that they tear so quickly, it’s very rare I am able to use them for more than 1 or 2 shopping trips, especially when I walk to the shops, hence need a bag that can both carry heavier items and is comfortable to hold. Even a thin plastic bag can be folded and used 5-10 times, and then when worn out can be used one last time as a bin bags. Even if the environmental cost of production of plastic and paper bag is the same, plastic still wins because of the reusability. Not to mention the thicker plastic bags can keep food colder (or even maintain frozen state), which means less food waste and better food safety. Even though plastic has really been villified recently, I think it’s a fantastic material which has improved our lives significantly, and it’s actually human ignorance and laziness that we try to blame our problems on plastic.
@@TheVietnameseCatGoblin I agree, except that I could never use a paper bag more than once... I’m lucky if it lasts the One trip home after buying it. I kinda hate them
All those statistics and yet none given for the bags your promoting as the best?? what kind of argument is that? How do you expect to convince people of you argument without the statistical facts to back it up?
The fact that a reusable cotton tote bag has a really high carbon footprint is just like a serial killer getting a job as a preschool teacher for the sake of redemption.
