Is it enough to stop at paper bags?

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the menace of plastic bottles in Rwanda. A few days after that piece was run, I was impressed (if not a little amused) by the arrest of a fellow seized by authorities for smuggling plastic bags into the country. As far as I know, Rwanda and Bangladesh are the only countries with a nation-wide ban on plastic bags – joining cities around the world like Mexico City, Rangoon, among others. In countries like Italy and Ireland, taxes and fees restrict use of plastic bags. We have our environmental institutions (REMA and MINIRENA) to thank for a much cleaner country – no more of those ubiquitous black plastic bags littering our streets, blocking drains and being a threat to all our hardworking earthworms. I have looked all over the web for the justifications given by the above institutions for this policy, and other than cleanliness, and “protecting the environment”, I have not found any material that demonstrates that adequate research was done into the costs and benefits of such a ban in Rwanda (if a detailed study exists, please email me). I am intent on reading the research that was done on Paper versus Plastic in Rwanda because the life cycle costs (monetarily and environmentally) may make a difference between a policy on better plastic use and disposal versus a complete ban, especially since there’s much more to a bag than meets the eye – paper bags in many ways are just as harmful to the environment as plastic bags are. I am not in any way saying that this ban should be reversed – like in the case of Taiwan – but that the plastic bag ban may need to come with other policies to reinforce Rwanda’s commitment to protecting the environment. For one, the paper industry (globally) emits the fourth-highest levels of carbon dioxide, one of the biggest culprits of global warming – ironic given the fact that trees are the ecosystem’s main greenhouse absorbers. Stranger still, plastic bag production requires less water and four times less energy than paper bag production. One could also note that even if paper bags are touted as biodegradable, the method of disposal is paramount as the bags need to be exposed to Ultra-violet rays (sunlight) – I won’t even go into the volume of methane emissions that come with paper degradation, or the fact that for the same number of bags, paper bag weighs ten times more (therefore higher transportation costs and more waste) There are other questions: are we recycling these paper bags? Where is the tree bark for bag production from? If it is from Rwanda then there is the question of sustainability, exposure of our already exhausted, over-utilized soils to erosion… you name it. That being said, plastic bags are still a nuisance – they take eons (literally) to break down and plastic production is known to produce some of the most hazardous waste to the planet. Frankly speaking, the paper versus plastic debate is a no-win circle since both heavily impact the environment – if Rwanda is mainly concerned with cleanliness, then for all reasons and purposes, paper is the answer; but if we actually care about the environment, there’s so much more work left for us to do. For example we could encourage a culture of investing in re-usable bags (good job Nakumatt!); or we could discourage the abuse of paper bags by re-establishing the fee on each bag (to the store and the consumer) so that people re-use paper bags or skip the bag altogether. Do your part and skip the paper bag if you can – have a great week folks!

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Is it enough to stop at paper bags?