Lesson 08  A Sound Decision for the Environment

미래엔 영어I Reading_8과.hwp

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We have all been in the grocery store at one time or another and been asked, "Paper or plastic?" Some shoppers automatically answer "plastic" since they are convinced that they are making a better choice for the environment. Others, believing the very same thing, ask for paper. Which would you choose? Let's take a look at both paper and plastic bags and weigh all the costs to the environment.

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How Are They Produced?

Paper comes from trees ― lots and lots of trees. About 14 billion trees are cut down annually to produce the 10 billion paper bags Americans consume each year. Manufacturing paper bags not only destroys forests, major absorbers of greenhouse gases, but it also uses other resources and causes pollution. Trees are cut and dried by electric machines and then cooked with chemicals to become pulp. Thousands of gallons of fresh water and hazardous chemicals are used every time the pulp is washed and bleached. According to some studies, the production of paper bags takes four times more energy and generates 50 times more water pollutants than plastic bag production.

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Plastic bags, however, can never be the more eco-friendly choice as they consume larger amounts of crude oil and natural gas than paper bags. The U.S. annually uses 100 billion plastic bags, which are made from an estimated 12 million barrels of oil. In addition, plastics production requires chemicals. In a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ranking of chemicals that generate the most hazardous waste, five of the top six are commonly used by the plastic industry.

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Are They Biodegradable?

Paper is biodegradable, but it cannot completely break down in modern landfills because of the lack of water, light, air, and other necessary elements. About 95 percent of garbage is buried beneath layers of soil that make it difficult for air and light to reach the garbage.

Although they take up less space in landfills, plastic bags are not biodegradable. They will not break down over time. Worldwide, an estimated four billion plastic bags end up as trash each year. Tied end to end, the bags could circle the Earth 63 times. A lot of people believe that plastic will biodegrade underground, but, in fact, it will be there for centuries.

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Are They Recyclable?

Paper can be returned to pulp by using many chemicals to bleach and separate the fibers. It takes much more energy to recycle a pound of paper than it takes to recycle a pound of plastic. Although paper bags have a higher recycling rate than plastic, each new paper grocery bag you use is made mostly from new pulp for better strength. Bags that are recycled are often turned into cardboard, not new paper bags.

Recycling almost any kind of plastic involves melting and re-forming it. Because bags must first be separated by the type of plastic they were made from, the process is time-consuming and expensive. For example, it can cost $4,000 to recycle one ton of plastic bags. Besides, the quality of recycled plastic is not very good. More often than not, bags collected for recycling do not get recycled. They are carried to other countries, where they are cheaply burned under less strict environmental laws.

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What You Can Do

Both paper and plastic bags damage the environment. They produce waste that will not biodegrade easily. They not only require lots of energy and resources but also cause serious pollution in the process of production and recycling. Therefore, the answer should always be "neither," every time we hear the question, "Paper or plastic?" There are several ways to do without paper or plastic bags:

1. Just say no to bags. Think twice about asking for a paper or plastic bag every time you shop for small purchases.

2. Prepare reusable cloth bags and keep them in your home, office, and car, so they will be available when you go shopping.

3. Reuse the bags you have. Use colorful bags as wrapping paper; line your trash cans with them; cut bags apart to use as table covers when painting with the kids; be creative and be green!