Paper Bags or Plastic Bags?

by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 07. 9.08

Paper or plastic bags: which is better?
It's an age old question, when it comes time to check out when grocery shopping: paper bag or plastic bag? It seems like it should be an easy choice, but there's an incredible number of details and inputs hidden in each bag. From durability and reusability to life cycle costs, there's a lot more to each bag than meet the eye. Let's take a look behind the bags.

Where do brown paper bags come from?
Paper comes from trees -- lots and lots of trees. The logging industry, influenced by companies like Weyerhaeuser and Kimberly-Clark, is huge, and the process to get that paper bag to the grocery store is long, sordid and exacts a heavy toll on the planet. First, the trees are found, marked and felled in a process that all too often involves clear-cutting, resulting in massive habitat destruction and long-term ecological damage.

Mega-machinery comes in to remove the logs from what used to be forest, either by logging trucks or even helicopters in more remote areas. This machinery requires fossil fuel to operate and roads to drive on, and, when done unsustainably, logging even a small area has a large impact on the entire ecological chain in surrounding areas.

Part way between trees and paper bags. Photo credit: Sally A. Morgan—Ecoscene/Corbis

Once the trees are collected, they must dry at least three years before they can be used. More machinery is used to strip the bark, which is then chipped into one-inch squares and cooked under tremendous heat and pressure. This wood stew is then "digested," with a chemical mixture of limestone and acid, and after several hours of cooking, what was once wood becomes pulp. It takes approximately three tons of wood chips to make one ton of pulp.

The pulp is then washed and bleached; both stages require thousands of gallons of clean water. Coloring is added to more water, and is then combined in a ratio of 1 part pulp to 400 parts water, to make paper. The pulp/water mixture is dumped into a web of bronze wires, and the water showers through, leaving the pulp, which, in turn, is rolled into paper.

Whew! And that's just to make the paper; don't forget about the energy inputs -- chemical, electrical, and fossil fuel-based -- used to transport the raw material, turn the paper into a bag and then transport the finished paper bag all over the world.

International Renewable Energy Agency launched in Bonn

International Renewable Energy Agency launched in Bonn

Monday, 26 January 2009

A new organisation promoting the development and use of renewable energies was launched on Monday January 26 in the former German capital, Bonn. The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) will advise industrialised and developing nations on ways of reducing their dependency on oil, coal and gas.

Renewablae Energy : We need it badly

Renewable energy resources are kind of those energy which are not destructing itself for producing energy for us, such as wind, solar and hydropower. This kind of energy offer clean alternatives to fossil fuels. They produce little or no pollution or greenhouse gases, and they will never run out.

Solar Energy

The best energy resources we have in this planet is The sun. Sunlight, or solar energy, can be used for heating, lighting and cooling homes and other buildings, generating electricity, water heating, and a variety of industrial processes.

Moreover, Most forms of renewable energy come either directly or indirectly from the sun. For example, heat from the sun causes the wind to blow, contributes to the growth of trees and other plants that are used for biomass energy, and plays an essential role in the cycle of evaporation and precipitation that makes hydropower possible.

So We can call The Solar Energy Resource as "Premio resource of Recyclable Energy".

Wind Energy

After Solar power, we can assume Wind is secondary resources as recyclable energy generating factor. Wind is the movement of air that occurs when warm air rises and cooler air rushes in to replace it. The energy of the wind has been used for centuries to sail ships and drive windmills that grind grain.

At present, researchers are expressing their own view for wind energy which is captured by wind turbines and used to generate electricity.

Hydropower

This is also secondary resources of recyclable energy. Where Water flowing downstream powerfully there it is a powerful force.

As we know, Water is a renewable resource, constantly recharged by the global cycle of evaporation and precipitation. The heat of the sun causes water in lakes and oceans to evaporate and form clouds. The water then falls back to Earth as rain or snow, and drains into rivers and streams that flow back to the ocean. Flowing water can be used to power water wheels that drive mechanical processes. And captured by turbines and generators, like those housed at many dams around the world, the energy of flowing water can be used to generate electricity.

Biomass Energy

Now a days, Biomass has been an important source of energy.

With wood , people are promoting the most common source of biomass energy, but other sources of biomass energy include food crops, grasses and other plants, agricultural and forestry waste and residue, organic components from municipal and industrial wastes, even methane gas harvested from community landfills.

Biomass can be used to produce electricity and as fuel for transportation, or to manufacture products that would otherwise require the use of non-renewable fossil fuels.

Hydrogen

Primarily, we can say this is next-generation technology as recyclable energy resource. Hydrogen has tremendous potential as a fuel and energy source, but the technology needed to realize that potential is still in the early stages.

Hydrogen is the most common element on Earth—for example, water is two-thirds hydrogen—but in nature it is always found in combination with other elements. Once separated from other elements, hydrogen can be used to power vehicles, replace natural gas for heating and cooking, and to generate electricity.

Geothermal Energy

The heat inside the Earth produces steam and hot water that can be used to power generators and produce electricity, or for other applications such as home heating and power generation for industry.

Geothermal energy can be drawn from deep underground reservoirs by drilling, or from other geothermal reservoirs closer to the surface.

Ocean Energy

The ocean, the big ocean. As we know we are surroundings by these oceans and it has provides several forms of renewable energy, and each one is driven by different forces.

Energy from ocean waves and tides can be harnessed to generate electricity, and ocean thermal energy—from the heat stored in sea water—can also be converted to electricity. Using current technologies, most ocean energy is not cost-effective compared to other renewable energy sources, but the ocean remains and important potential energy source for the future.

All above, with some home and with some desire to make our planet alive.