According to the researches carried out in Europe, plastic bags are found to be the most environmentally friendly choice.
In Turkey -especially within the last years- plastics, on the other hand, are announced to be "enemy" against human as well as the environment. People are misinformed about plastic bags. According to this misinformation plastics are nondegradable for centuries; but in fact they can be degraded in 8-10 years in nature. Especially by means of using biodegradable materials, this period can even be decreased to 1 year.
When plastic bags are used consciously, it shall be clear that they are much more environmentally friendly compared to other packaging materials.
Plastic bags are light, strong, water-resistant, reusable and recyclable products. The production cost as well as the energy consumption of other packaging materials is 2 times and their waste volume is 2,5 times of plastic bags. The transportation cost of plastics are also much more economical compared to their alternatives, due to the fact that they are lighter materials. It is possible to transport them in large amounts in single time and their transportation also consumes less energy.
The abandonment of the use of plastic bags, is not so useful for the environment as it is believed to be. Contrarily, plastic bags are energy saving materials and they are also easily affordable. For example; 1 ton of paper is made of 2.4 tons of wood; and for getting 2.4 tons of wood 17 pine trees should be cut. What's more 1 ton of paper requires 440 tons of water as well as 7600 kWh electric energy.
Environmental pollution is not caused by plastic bags; in fact people who leave them in nature unconsciously are the main reason of pollution. When people behave much more consciously and when plastic bags are recycled it is possible to prevent environmental pollution. For that reason public awareness should be raised about the necessity of recycling and people should be encouraged as well. Consequently after recycling, it shall clearly be seen that the most environmentally friendly and the most economical packages are plastic bags.