Are paper bags really better than plastic bags?

More and more cites are enforcing law to reduce the use of plastic bags, and replace them with paper bags or reusable

bags, but are these bags really better than plastic bags?

At least not in a financial stand point, a paper published by NCPA states that after a study done within in cities that have plastic bag reduction law, find no evidence of a reduction in costs attributable to reduced use of plastic bags. 

This is because paper bags, while biodegradable unlike plastics, are ten times heavier and they take up more space than plastic bags, and most reusable bags are made in China, and shipped all the way to other countries, therefore their environmental footprint is really large as well.

According to the paper, plastic bags are less than 0.5% of the total waste, and often paper bags don't have a chance to biodegrade in time. Therefore in total, cities are not saving any money in waste management from banning plastic bags.

So, is banning plastic bags a bad idea overall?

Not at all, because we don't ban plastic bags to make money, we ban plastic bags to protect our environment. Plastics don't biodegrade, it will took 500-1000 years for a plastic bag to break down into small pieces that our eye cannot see, but they never went away.

There are two examples to look into: Bangladesh uses plastic bags heavily, 9.3 million plastic bags are dumped in the city every day, with only 10-15% put in dustbins. The rest are left go into drainage and sewage lines, causing blockages.

On the other hand, Rwanda, a country located in the Africa, has banned the use of plastic bags nation-wide 18 years ago, now Rwanda is one of the cleanest country in Africa, the ban of plastic bag didn't just made to country cleaner, it booted the country's tourism, productivity and national pride.

http://www.ncpa.org/pdfs/st353.pdf
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tom-carver/rwanda-plastic-bags_b_2680631.html
http://www.edie.net/news/0/Bangladesh-to-ban-plastic-bags-in-capital-city/5029/

2 everyday items that are heating up our climate

We all know that large power plants and cars and factories are major contributors of the global warming, but what are the things that we didn't notice but are ruining the atmosphere as well?


1. Gas- powered lawn mowersAccording to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, Gas- powered lawn mowers contribute to 5% of the air pollution, Each weekend, about 54 million Americans mow their lawns, using 800 million gallons of gas per year and producing tons of air pollutants. That is due to the deregulation of emissions of garden equipment. According to the EPA, the amount of volatile organic compounds and nitrogen oxides emissions air pollution that gas- powered lawn mowers are responsible are equivalent to 11 cars operating in the same time.

2.  gas-powered leaf blowers

Similar to lawn mowers, many leaf blowers use the two-stroke engine, it is a lightweight, cheap, compact and simple engine, which makes it a handy motor often found in leaf blowers, chain saws, lawn mowers and jet skis. However the two-stroke engine is known as a environmental hazard, 30 percent of the fuel the engine uses fails to undergo complete combustion, as a result, it emits a large amount of pollutions.

Also, leaf blowers are known to be a major source of noise pollution.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/how-bad-for-the-environment-are-gas-powered-leaf-blowers/2013/09/16/8eed7b9a-18bb-11e3-a628-7e6dde8f889d_story.html

http://www.peoplepoweredmachines.com/faq-environment.htm

February 2016 was by far the warmest February

February 2016 is by far the hottest February on record for the planet. The number surprised even the climate scientists who closely monitor global temperature data. It was also the warmest any month the Earth has seen in 135 years.since NASA record keeping.It is really possible that 2016 could set a new record for hottest year.

“I think we all knew this would be a warm year due to the major El Niño event. But I don’t think any of us expected such remarkable and persistent record-breaking warmth,” said Michael Mann, a climate scientist at Penn State and a co-author on a recent study on the issue.

According to data released by NASA this weekend, February 2016 was 2.43°F (1.35°C) warmer than the average from 1951 to 1980, and 0.8°F (0.5°C) warmer than the previous record February, in 1998. It was the 10th month in a row to set such a monthly record,according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

As a student, it is easy to say that my power is limited and I cant do much to change the situation. However, we must start to do what we can to protect the environment. It could be taking public transport, it could be saving food fromg going to waste,every bits of effort counts, oftentimes it is the small things that make all the difference.

http://www.nature.com/articles/srep19831

http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/tabledata_v3/GLB.Ts+dSST.txt