According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency*
Paper manufacturing facilitates: smoke stacks, logging trucks, clear cut forests.
It takes 13 to 17 trees to make one ton of paper bags. In 1997, it was reported that 955000 tons of paper bags were used in the United States (that?s about 13 to 17 million trees).
It takes more than four times as much energy to manufacture a paper bag as it does to manufacture a plastic bag.
It takes 91 percent less energy to recycle a pound of plastic than it takes to recycle a pound of paper.
Paper sacks generate 70 percent more air and 50 times more water pollutants than plastic bags.
Plastic grocery bags generate 80% less solid waste than paper bags.
2000 plastic bags weigh 30 pounds, 2000 paper bags weigh 280 pounds. Paper bags require significant more landfill space.
Current research demonstrates that paper in today?s landfills does not degrade or break down at a substantially faster rate than plastic.
USA TODAY reported**
Four times as much energy is required to produce paper bags and 85 times as much energy is needed to recycle them.
Paper takes up nine times as much space in landfills.
Compostable bags must also be segregated from regular plastic, making recycling efforts more difficult.
The New York Times stated***
The paper industry emits the fourth-highest level of carbon dioxide, following the chemical, petroleum, coal products, and primary metals industries.
