The War on Bags - Paper, Cotton or Plastic?

From the leading fashion stores on the high street to the biggest names in food retail, it seems everyone is keen to get on the paper bag bandwagon that is currently saturating Britain's shops. But what are the actual benefits of exchanging disposable plastic bags in favour of paper or cotton ones?

Paper bags - Kinder to the environment

The rush to exchange plastic bags with paper ones is primarily driven by the fact that the latter are much kinder to the environment. Whilst paper bags biodegradable, plastic bags are only photodegradable, meaning that unless they are exposed to the UV light of the sun in a landfill, they will not decompose. In failing to decompose, plastic bags ultimately contribute to the rising volume of a landfill.


Even if a plastic bag does decompose in the sun, unlike other materials such as paper, which provides valuable nutrients to the earth, plastic fragments into smaller pieces that can be dangerous to animals. As five trillion plastic bags are produced each year, these photodegradation products are inevitably having a negative effect on the world's wildlife population.

A sassier kind of bag

From Primark placing its 'cheap and cheerful' fashion items in huge and sturdy paper bags, to Nike serving its trainers in a similar carrier with its logo flashily emblazoned across the front, fashion designers across the world are busy designing paper carrier bags that are so stylish, at a pinch, you could exchange them for your handbag.

Being armed with a handful of shopping stuffed in paper bags, feels a whole lot classier than struggling to carry your shopping with plastic carriers.

The downsides to paper bags

Of course there is a downside to paper carrier bags, namely that they are made from trees and therefore contribute to deforestation. Deforestation creates problems to the environment as it decreases biodiversity and ecosystem stability as well as increasing the global greenhouse effect, global warming and rising sea levels.

Cotton bags

Similar to paper bags, cotton carriers have been growing in popularity in recent years and are now widely viewed as being an eco-friendlier and more stylish alternative to plastic bags. One of the main advantages of cotton bags is that they are considerably stronger than both paper and plastic carriers, meaning shoppers can reuse them time and time again.

Being made from renewable natural fibres that are woven from thread made from plants, cloth bags are completely biodegradable.

Bruce Green wrote this article for www.paperbagco.co.uk/, one of the U's leading suppliers of recyclable paper carrier bags.