New study suggests plastic bags have less carbon emissions than paper alternatives after Lawrence bans plastic bags

The city of Lawrence, Kansas has banned businesses from offering customers plastic bags in an effort to help the environment. According to an announcement from December 21, 2023, Ordinance No. 9996 would go into effect Friday, March 1, 2024, prohibiting “establishments in Lawrence from providing single-use disposable plastic bags to customers.”

In August of last year, Lawrence city commissioners approved the ordinance to infringe on the free market. According to local media, the ban was “initially prompted by a class of environmentally conscious fourth graders who are now high school sophomores”.

The local government will be fining business that provide plastic bags, allowing them to only provide certain reusable bags. However, even these reusable bags will have restrictions, including:

• Reusable bags are permitted if they are made of nylon, cotton, cloth, polyester, or another material that is specifically designed and manufactured for multiple reuses.
• If made of plastic, a reusable bag must contain at least 40% post-consumer recycled content and must measure at least 4.0 mils in thickness. Plastic reusable bags must be labeled with the post-consumer recycled content percentage, the mil thickness, and the word “reusable” on the bag.
• Only paper bags containing at least 40% post-consumer recycled content are permitted. The single-use disposable paper bags must be labeled with the post-consumer recycled content percentage.

Not all plastic bags under this ordinance will be banned. According to the ‘about’ page on plasticfreelawrence.org the ordinance provides exemptions for the following establishments, except when engaged in the commercial sale or distribution of perishable or non-perishable items to consumers:

• Religious and charitable institutions
• Schools
• Not-for-profit organizations
• Farmers’ Markets, allowed to engage in the commercial sale or distribution of perishable or non-perishable items to consumers.

The page notes further exemptions for sales of live animals, prescriptions, newspapers, laundry or dry cleaning, and produce or product bags.

The website also provides a number of reasons for the government infringement that goes beyond reducing litter, including:

• Single-use disposable plastic bags degrade into harmful microplastics that are bad for humans to ingest. Ordinance No. 9996 will lessen the number of these microplastics in our food and water supply.
• Single-use disposable plastic bags are sometimes ingested by animals, which contributes significantly to animal morbidity and mortality.
• Finally, plastic bags are made with valuable fossil fuels, and the production of plastic bags emits greenhouse gasses at every phase of the production process. By cutting down on single-use plastic bags, we can preserve fossil fuels for the future while reducing our impact on Earth’s atmosphere.

However, a new study suggests that these efforts, at least in part, are a bit misinformed. The study, published by ACS Publications on January 30, 2024, has found that plastics, when used in 15 out 16 applications incurs fewer greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions than their alternatives. This isn’t by a little bit, either. The study found that “plastic products release 10% to 90% fewer emissions across the product life cycle.”

The below table from the study shows paper as the next best alternative to plastic bags with an 80 percent higher GHG emission impact–four times as much carbon emission for paper bags.