Plastic bag: The patsy of the consumer play

Nguyen Thi Thao Nguyen (Vietnam)
Honorable Mentions

Just a year ago, a male pilot whale was seen floating strangely in the waters off Southern Thailand. Autopsy examination revealed that the whale swallowed up to 80 plastic bags weighing 8kg. The whale's death made the world take notice and determined to change. Over the past 10 years, 91 countries and territories have put a ban or imposed high taxes on disposable plastic bags. Instead of using plastic bags or plastic straws, residents have switched to paper cups and paper bags. Like that, they assume that they are acting for a better world. As a joke, plastic bags versus paper bags debate has a long, intense fight lasting like the history of El Classico matches. Studying the archives of the New York Times, I discovered an article from 1984 and since then, people have debated drastically about whether to use plastic bags or paper bags. But back then, no one cared about the environment. They argued about other things. The concern about the environment probably just broke out in the 90s. At this time, plastic bag users were one step ahead when they launched campaigns to stop using paper bags to protect the forests. The campaign was very successful because the paper was made of wood which is thought to be taken from the forest. While in fact, today paper is mostly made from recycled materials instead of destroying primary forests. Anyway, plastic bags were one point ahead.
However, by the 21st century, plastic bags fell into a disadvantage. They take up to 1,000 years to decompose. Most of them are discharged into the sea. At the bottom of the Atlantic today there are more than 300 million plastic bags. Even those bags which are advertised as biodegradable will survive in the soil for several decades. Like a vicious circle, now, people reject plastic bags and use paper bags, considering it as a gesture to express: I am a green person. The movement to reject plastic bags is also an opportunity for businesses to wake up their brands. They just forgot that paper bags are no better than plastic bags!
The process of making a paper bag releases 70 times more air pollution and 50 times more water pollution than making a plastic bag. The energy source for producing paper bags is 4 times higher than nylon bags. Paper bags are also heavier than plastic bags and thus, shipping paper bags is also costly and leaves a bigger "carbon footprint". Not to mention, we still think paper bags can decompose faster but that is if the sanitary landfill reaches the ideal condition. But a sanitary landfill never reaches the ideal conditions. Lack of light, oxygen, means that paper also takes a long time to decompose.
According to the UK Environment Agency, a paper bag needs to be reused at least three times, its environmental impact level is less than that of a disposable plastic bag. So what about other materials like cloth bags? Cloth bags look really environmentally friendly, but they are the most dangerous "criminals". The ignorant fashion designers built a campaign to praise cloth bags, they even declared proudly: "I'm not a plastic bag." But you have to use a cloth bag thousands of times to make it affect the environment less than a plastic bag. Not over yet, organic cotton is worse than traditional cotton. And, replacing plastic bags with paper bags or cloth bags is just out of the frying pan, into the fire.
It is estimated that every year we discharge 1,000 billion to 5,000 billion plastic bags worldwide, 140 to 700 times more than the human population. Instead of asking why we use plastic bags, ask why are we using so many of them? "It's the items contained in the bag that matter," said David Taylor, a chemistry research professor at the University of Oregon.
Consumerism has been booming since the end of the 17th century, with the development of the middle class in society and the increase in the supply of luxury items including sugar, tobacco, tea, and coffee from Caribbean plantations. By the 21st century, there is no doubt that we are living in a society "separated from the values of community, spirit, and righteousness, towards competition, materialism, and disconnection ”. And the plastic bag is just the tip of the iceberg. "The items in the bag" are the central symbol of consumerism. What are these items? They are fashion clothing, food, are basic human needs: the need to dress.
Fashion is the second most polluting industry in the world, annually consuming more than 2 trillion gallons of water and 145 million tons of coal. The popular fashion brands like Zara, H&M when coming to Vietnam and other Asian countries have become a fever but no one knows behind those shiny stores is a depleted resource field, is an exhausted Earth.
Meanwhile, the meat and dairy industry is on track to surpass the oil to become the world's biggest contributor to climate change. Can you imagine, that the cartons of milk you drink every day create more pollution than the motorbikes? But it is a fact.
In Australia, after imposing taxes on plastic bags, there was a decrease of about 6% in plastic bags in 2016 compared to 2015. But it should be emphasized that the number of plastic bags only accounts for about 1% of the total trash.
And, once people race against insatiable consumer needs, it is also useless to ban plastic bags, you still need something that is equally polluting to bring things home. "Eat less than one meal a week - that's how it really helps the environment," said Professor David Taylor.
We cannot live without littering.
The basic existentialism in modern life has stood in the opposite position with nature. We cannot live without leaving any "consequences". And the problem is not that we consume a lot of plastic bags, but that is we consume a lot.