How do they stack up?
A bare-bones assessment of the best bag possible in terms of it's environmental impact and usability.

The green bag
Made from polypropylene fibres, these bags can carry more shopping than shopping or checkout bags, so you use less. They are sturdy and designed to be reused repeatedly. They have a lifespan of two to three years and could be recycled if the demand was there. But don’t throw these away – they won’t disappear from landfill in a hurry and would float around for around six months in a marine environment (but because they look less like jellyfish might not harm as much marine life as the shopping bag).

Calico bags
Made from cotton, which requires a lot of water resources to be grown, but again these can be reused and reused, and will hold more than a plastic bag. They won’t degrade in landfill in a hurry, but they sink within one day so they don’t stick around the marine environment.

Biodegradable bags
Can last anywhere from ten days to several years in the environment. Some float for months and can cause problems with the environment while others dissolve when wet. The main thing to remember is they don’t disappear overnight, so they can still be a litter problem.

Cornstarch bags
Again it depends what they’re made of – whether it’s all starch or mostly plastic. Some biodegrade very quickly, others only break down into smaller bits of plastic.

Using standard plastic bags & recycling them
Recycling plastic bags saves on energy – it takes more energy to manufacture plastic bags than it does to recycle them. It also prevents plastic bags from entering the litter stream. Recycled bags are made into more bags, but the recycled content varies – anywhere from 15% to 50%.

Using standard plastic bags & throwing them away
Not a great option – they get into the litter stream, harm and kill marine life, choke up drains and fill up landfills. It’s best to reuse your bags, more than once if you can, and reduce the number you use as much as possible.

Paper bags
Both paper bags and shopping bags produce more greenhouse gases than reusable bags. Paper bags take more energy to manufacture than plastic bags and can’t be reused as often.