Since 1959, the first plastic bag had been invented, plastic packaging has been widely used in our daily life. Plastic packaging is cheap, durable, and convenient so that the manufacturers love it, the consumers love it. However, our planet earth does not love it.
According to the Natural Environment website it takes at least 400 years or longer for a plastic bag to biodegrade which has the following effects:
Natural Environment estimates that approximately 100,000 sea turtles and other marine animals die every year because they get strangled in bags or mistake them for food.
In Australia, 50 million garbage bags end up as litter yearly, and the “plastic soup” patch in the Pacific Ocean (twice the size of the continental United States) is roughly 80% of the ocean.
Like with plastic bags, plastic water bottles were until recently considered an essential part of everyday life, whilst being thrown away at will. This leads to some of the following effects:
Overflow at landfills, requiring high amounts of fossil fuel for production
Covering the ocean surface leading to the destruction of habits and wildlife
Importing waters from overseas requires trucks for transportation and delivery, which has a large environmental impact. 1500 plastic water bottles are being used every second in the United States alone.
With the paper industry technology development, the paper packaging solution can replace the plastic ones in almost every application area and maintains its environmentally friendly properties.
Source
Unlike the plastic product is made from crude oil, the paper product’s source is plant-based fiber which is totally natural and sustainable. Nowadays, the main paper product manufacturers use planted forests, by-products from other industries like bagasse or recycle fiber to produce a paper product which means using paper product will not give pressure to our nature environment.
No harm to the environment and wildlife
Most of the paper products are biodegradable and can turn into the soil in less than three months. It means that even the paper product is disposed into the natural environment without any special treatment, it will disappear shortly without notice. When the wildlife accidentally eats paper products which is very rare due to the high-speed degradable properties, their digestive system will break it down and discharge easily.
Performance and convenient
Thanks to the yearly development of the paper material, the paper product’s performance is much higher than it used to be. It is stronger, more durable, grease-proof, waterproof, and microwave safe which is not recommended for plastic products.
Choosing a paper product today and you can make a change to our world.