Green Logic

Photo by Christopher Vega on Unsplash While some may revile the ubiquitous plastic grocery bag as the ultimate example of our throw-away society, others argue they aren't that bad if they are recycled. One problem with recycling is that time and energy are expended returning the bags to a store or recycling center. Altogether, it costs $4,000 to recycle a ton of plastic bags. 1 That ton of plastic is then worth $500-$1200 on the open commodities market. 2 That’s before it is turned back into plastic bags which only adds to this unequal cost equation. We are only talking about the estimated 5-20% of bags that make it to the recycler. The rest end up as landfill or litter. In the landfill, however, they take up a fraction of the volume paper bags occupy. The litter problem does remain, and it seems governments are unwilling to impose stiffer fines to reduce it. In another comparison with paper bags, because the plastic bags are light and take up less room, they require only one s...