Our post last week, in light of Greenpeace's statement that plastic waste rose considerably last year due to the sale of 1.5 billion 'bags for life', prompted people to ditch plastic-based bags for those who didn't have such damaging environmental implications once they'd been thrown away.
This revelation prompted the re-uptake of using alternatives to plastic bags of any form, replacing them with paper, cotton and other durable materials.
But here's a fun fact for you all: plastic was actually introduced to combat the environmental impact the production of paper and cotton has. That seems pretty whack now, right?
Plastic, a product of oil, is extremely lightweight and durable and takes very little energy and external resources to produce in comparison to paper and cotton, which require considerably more water and electricity to produce. thus producing higher CO2 emissions and other wastage that contribute to global warming.
So - are all these materials equally damaging to the environment, albeit in different ways?
In response to this, we asked followers of @priceofplastic how much they felt they knew about the environmental impact the production of paper and cotton had in comparison to plastic.
The results, shown in the infographic above, shows that over half of participants either didn't know or weren't sure of the impact material production had on the planet.
In summary, the best thing to do is use bags you already have and not buy new ones!
What do you use to reduce your reliance on plastic and other materials that have a negative impact on our planet? Comment below or Tweet us @priceofplastic
Listen to the documentary here
Cover image from Liverpool Echo.
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