Do eco-friendly canvas bags need to be reused?
To practice plastic reduction in daily life, most people usually start with bringing their own shopping bags, but whether eco-friendly bags are really helpful for environmental protection depends on whether they are reused.
These bags are obtained from raw materials, manufactured, and then discarded after use. They also undergo recycling, incineration, or composting, and the resources consumed during this period are used to calculate how many times they should be reused in order to be the most environmentally friendly.
Taking cotton bags as an example, according to Danish research, it takes nearly 20000 repeated uses for their carbon footprint to decrease to the same level as disposable plastic bags, and so on.
Disposable plastic bags: easy to use, but the plastic does not decompose and can produce carcinogenic and toxic gases after recycling and incineration.
Polypropylene tote bag: mostly foldable nylon eco-friendly bags.
Cotton bag/canvas bag: The planting process of cotton consumes a lot of water, and the processing of the production process also generates a large amount of energy consumption.
Polyester fiber eco-friendly bag: It is a common non-woven eco-friendly bag.
Biodegradable plastic bags: can be sent to landfills or compost for decomposition treatment, but if discarded in the general environment, complete decomposition cannot be guaranteed.
