The fabric bags are not as ecological as we thought

Plastic bags are found in numerous businesses and companies at the edge of extinction.Instead, most brands opt for the well -known fabric bags that, a priori, cause a lower environmental impact.However, an article published by The New York Times could put this statement in question.

According to the half -renowned, the bags made of this material would not be a solution as effective as we had thought, especially if we have several of them in our homes.

Why aren't the fabric bags so respectful of the environment?

In 2018, an investigation into the environmental impact of organic cotton in the environment was carried out in Denmark.According to the aforementioned study, to compensate for the footprint in the nature of a fabric bag, this should be used at least 20.000 occasions, that is, the equivalent to take it day after day for almost 54 years.This is caused by the large amount of energy and water required by its creation, which also causes a great impact on the atmosphere.

In addition to the great environmental production costs, these fabric accessories have a very complicated process when recycling, so their damages continue to grow.As Pauline Deutz confirms, a professor at Hull University, "the reusable options are better, but only if you really reuse them.Get a quality bag that is resistant and use it for years ".

For his part, Tomas Ekvall, professor at Chalmers University of Technology, is also a firm defender of opting for other resources against plastic: "The main reason to search for alternatives to single -use plastic bags is the need forReduce waste and consequent microplastic pollution in the oceans ".For the expert, the figure of 20.000 uses of a plastic bag is the ideal number that rounds the cost of production with being able to overcome the environmental damages that it means: “It is the number of times we should use it to overcome or match its various environmental impacts in all categories.A cotton bag contributes about 20.000 times more to the destruction of the ozone layer than a single -use plastic bag.However, the destruction of ozone is not usually one of the main concerns of life cycle evaluations ”.

In conclusion, the solution to reduce the environmental footprint of this type of bags is the reuse of fabric bags, always, above the products of the same type made in plastic.However, opting for the fabric should always lead to always use the same, as Ekvall explains: “The optimal thing for the environment is to use the bags you already have at home, whether cotton, paper or plastic, instead, insteadto acquire new ones ".