Excerpt from an online article in the WSJ. Various studies have examined whether paper or plastic grocery bags are environmentally friendlier. The studies that look specifically at grocery bags generally conclude that paper bags produce less of a litter problem, but that plastic bags consume less energy and water and produce less pollution, including greenhouse-gas emissions. So the choice is a tradeoff between environmental priorities. Virtually all studies say the environmentally friendliest option is to choose a reusable grocery bag, and to reuse it many times, regardless of what that bag is made of. See a selection of recent studies below.
- This study for the government of South Africa evaluates a proposed plastic bag ban that took effect May 2000.
- This 2000 study sponsored by European paper-bag producers looks not at grocery bags, but at larger shopping bags.
- A 2004 study by EuroCommerce, a European business group, evaluates different strategies to reduce use of plastic bags.
- This 2005 study for the Scottish government (Volume 1, and Volume 2) concludes that while reusable bags are preferable, paper bags “have a greater negative environmental impact than conventional plastic carrier bags.”
- Paper producers published this rebuttal to the 2005 report for the Scottish government, saying it drew inapplicable data from this 2004 study sponsored by French retailer Carrefour. (In French)
- This 2007 study sponsored by U.S. plastic-bag makers concludes that a standard plastic grocery bag has “significantly lower environmental impacts” than a paper grocery bag.
