The map above shows that the majority of the world’s countries are not taking direct action against the banning of plastic bags...
Method
I did an experiment to see how strong different plastic bags are, using 3 different supermarket brand of bags. I used Tesco bags, Somerfield and also Waitrose.
Apparatus:
- Clamp
- Stand
- Boss
- Safety cushion
- 100g mass
- 3 plastic bags from 3 different supermarkets
I set the apparatus like the diagram below
With each plastic bag, I hooked it onto the boss and slowly dropped each weight into the bag until the bag broke onto the safety cushion below. I then recorded the mass each bag took into a results table.
The results table above shows the repetition of my experiment and the results. It is clear from the results above that the 3rd repetition of the Tesco bag caused an anomaly, as it doesn’t follow similar results to the other bags.
The results table above shows the average result of each plastic bag (how much weight the plastic bags were able to hold before it breaks)
It is clear from the graph above that the Waitrose carrier bag held the most amount of mass, as on average it held 12.7kg compared to the Somerfield bag which held the least amount of mass on average 11.1kg. However according to the original table, with the not averaged result, it is clear that the Tesco bag is the strongest. The anomaly may have lowered the result extremely as it was 7.8kg compared to 13.5kg and 13.2kg, if it was averaged without the anomaly, it would be equal to 13.35kg.
In the above graph I used the same results except I didn’t include the anomaly for the Tesco bag, before I averaged the results. From this result, it is clear that the Tesco bag is the strongest out of the bags with an average of 13.35kg (not including the anomaly).
The conclusion for the results is that overall; the supermarket with the strongest bag is Waitrose with the highest average mass held of 12.7kg. On the other hand, this conclusion is also very controversial, because had there not been a fault that caused the anomalous data for the Tesco bag, then the average wouldn’t have been as low and would have been around 13.35kg (the data I got when I took out the anomalies before averaging the results) instead of 11.5kg. This would have meant that Tesco had the strongest bag. Clearly, Somerfield had the weakest bag, as it only held 11.1kg, which is 1.6kg less than the average mass of Waitrose and 0.5kg less than the average mass of the Tesco bag, with the anomalous data. Waitrose estimates that it gives away 220 million of the 12.4 billion free carrier bags (plastic bags) that are given to customers by UK retailers each year. This means that there are a lot of customers depending on these bags to carry their groceries and therefore they like the convenience of having a bag that does not break every time they put things inside of it. Tesco have provided an option for customers to choose if they want their groceries to be delivered to their homes without plastic bags, to help the environment. When customers with to do so they are then rewarded ‘green club card points’ which allow them to redeem awards or get groceries for free.
The way that I made my experiment reliable is that I repeated my experiment 3 times and then averaged the result. Furthermore, I also picked out anomalous data. The anomalous data could have happened because of something invalid in the experiment, such as human error. I may have dropped the weight into the plastic bag at higher height which would have increased the impact onto the plastic bag and therefore weakened it more. The ways that I made my experiment valid is by using bags that were brand new and at the same type of age. However, I may have mixed some of the bags up with older bags, so that would have weakened the bag more and therefore caused for an earlier breakage than the other bags. This could have occurred with the Somerfield bags as they took a smaller amount of mass compared to Waitrose and Tesco (Somerfield took 11.1kg compared to 12.7 kg of Waitrose and also Tesco’s mass of 11.5kg- with the low anomaly included). Also I was the same person who dropped the weights into the bag- this would have affected the results because some people may drop the weights at different heights depending on their own height. It was also crucial to drop each mass with the same difference of time in between each drop every time, with each bag. This is because if the mass is left in the bag for some time, the bag weakens more and more. That is also what could have caused the anomalous data. Also another way I made it reliable is by having only one controlled variable, which was the brand of plastic bag (the supermarket)
A way I could extend my research is by using paper bags instead of plastic bags so that I could see whether it would be more convenient for customer to have paper bags, if they are stronger. In addition, I could also look at other supermarkets such as Aldi, Morrisons, Asda and The co-operative and use their plastic bags in the same experiment and then compare the results with the other results I have. It would also be interesting if I changed the controlled variable from the brand of the bag (supermarket) to different ages of one supermarket brand bag. For instance, I could see whether the age of the bag really does affect the strength of it. I could also change the controlled variable to the height in which a weight is dropped, and then compare it on a graph and see if there is coloration between height and strength of the bag. Also, I could carry out a different style of research in which a get a few people to shop at supermarkets and tell them to record each supermarket trip and the amount of times there had been breakage in the bag. So I could decide whether it is a supermarket problem or whether it is just a coincidental result.
If you compare plastic bags to the alternative, paper bags, plastic bags are by far better for the environment. The film and bag federation (a trade group within the Society of the Plastics Industry based in Washington, D.C) backed this up. They said ‘Compared to paper grocery bags, plastic grocery bags consume 40 percent less energy, generate 80 percent less solid waste, produce 70 percent fewer atmospheric emissions, and release up to 94 percent fewer waterborne wastes’. Also, plastic bags are much cheaper, if shops were to use alternative packaging, the prices of many groceries would have to increase and customers would find that they no longer can afford some of the groceries they normally used to get. Also, a lot of people argue that plastic bags are the most re used thing in their homes. Many people do not throw them away, but use them to carry food and items around the house or out. Moreover, there are several people working in the factories that produce these plastic bags, and banning the use of them or reducing them will increase job loss. Other reasons are that they are strong considering the size of them and the mass of a plastic bag, also they are water and chemical resistant and consequently they would withstand the rain- unlike paper bags and also spillage of chemicals (that customers may have bought) such as bleach. Plastic bags are also made out of thermoplastic meaning that they can be melted and recycled into new plastic bags. Whereas, for paper bags, trees have to be chopped down- therefore a lot of habitat loss. Also, lots of pollution is released into the atmosphere during the transportation of the wood to the factory etc.
There are also many disadvantages of plastic bags. The United Nations discovered in 2006 that ‘Ten percent of the plastic produced every year worldwide winds up in the ocean. 70% of which finds its way to the ocean floor, where it will likely never degrade.’ When the plastic bags are in the sea. Many animals suffocate and die, as they mistake the plastic bags for food.
Plastic bags are also a non renewable source, as the plastic comes from crude oil. Crude oil is running out and it would take millions of years to get it again, so is better to preserve the amount of crude oil for more important uses with no alternatives (such as different packaging). It takes up to a thousand years for a single plastic bag to degrade, and as it degrades tiny particles of toxic chemicals are released into soil and water. When toxic chemicals (petrochemicals) are released into soil it could put plants in danger and die, also in the water many fish could be poisoned by the chemicals. An increase of a type of fish dying can cause other animals to also die as they may not have a source of food. Although, people may argue that plastic bags are re used at their homes, many still end up being thrown away and then entering land mines. Plastic bags are also often blown with strong winds and then are exposed to birds or other land animals that may be harmed by them or even killed.
The ‘Marrickville Council’ reports that over 100,000 whales, turtles and birds die every year due to plastic in their environment- so by reducing the amount of plastic bags, fewer animals are exposed to plastics and therefore would never come into contact with the thing that causes them death.
My personal opinion is that plastic bags are okay as long as awareness is increased for us to recycle plastic bags instead of throwing them away. The reason why I believe that plastic bags are okay is because they are the best option at the moment for easy, convenient, light, strong and cheap packaging. Until people are prepared to pay extra for their grocery shopping then I believe that many people do not want to stop using plastic bags. If we use the alternative, which are paper bags, it will have a more harmful effect on the environment. More trees would be chopped down and therefore less biodiversity and more habitat loss for animals. Plastic bags are also convenient if you want to take some packaging just in case, as it scrunches into a small ball. Although some plastic bags may be weak, from my investigation I found out that even the ‘weakest’ plastic bag is still strong and would still carry a lot of groceries considering it is free. Many people who complain about how they are weak and how they may break, in some ways have no right to. If they wanted something stronger, they have the option of buying bags that aren’t made of plastic such as the ‘Tesco bag for life’. It would possibly help if there were more recycling bins put in place in public areas such as parks, shopping centres etc, as many people may throw away their plastic bag and not know where to put it. The best case scenario being that they put it in a bin, but even then it is still bad for the environment. There are lots and lots of factors that contribute to endangering animals and I believe that we should prioritize some of these factors, instead of tackling an area which only contributes to a really small fraction of the problem. Also, the people that are being blamed for this, shouldn’t be the supermarkets. If anything supermarkets are trying their hardest on encouraging the customer to use packaging other than plastic bags. Many are charging on each plastic bag, introducing a bag for life, giving extra ‘points’ for people who re use their bags and providing the option for home delivering groceries without the plastics bags. The truth is, supermarkets aim what they provide for the target audience. The target audience is us. We are to blame for the use of plastic bags in the country as we are the ones who demand for it. When we decide that we will not use plastic bags anymore, that is when shops will stop providing it.
Glossary
Polyethylene- ‘a lightweight thermoplastic; used especially in packaging and insulation’
Thermoplastic- ‘having the property of softening or fusing when heated and of hardening and becoming rigid again when cooled; "thermoplastic materials can be melted again and cooled time after time without undergoing any appreciable chemical change"’
Branching- replacing the polymer chain with other forms or variations of the monomer
Polymer- ‘a naturally occurring or synthetic compound consisting of large molecules made up of a linked series of repeated simple monomers’
Monomer- ‘a simple compound whose molecules can join together to form polymers’
Degrade- ‘lower the grade of something; reduce its worth’
Landfills- ‘A landfill, also known as a dump or rubbish dump (and historically as a midden), is a site for the disposal of waste materials by burial and is the oldest form of waste treatment’
Habitat- ‘he type of environment in which an organism or group normally lives or occurs; "a marine habitat"; "he felt safe on his home grounds"’
Pollution- ‘undesirable state of the natural environment being contaminated with harmful substances as a consequence of human activities’
Atmosphere- ‘the weather or climate at some place; "the atmosphere was thick with fog"’
Petrochemicals- ‘Petrochemicals are chemical products derived from petroleum. Some chemical compounds made from petroleum are also obtained from other fossil fuels such as coal or natural gas, or renewable sources such as corn or sugar cane.’
Biodiversity- ‘the diversity (number and variety of species) of plant and animal life within a region’
Bibliography
- Information about plastics
- Effects on the environment
- Positives of plastics bags
- What plastic bags are made out of
- statistics about plastic bags
- Plastic bag pictures
- Plastic bags definition
- Comparison of plastic bags and paper bags
- plastic bags use rising in the uk
- Plastic bags
– What plastic bags are made out of, and thermoplastic info
- the chemicals that are in plastic bags, and advantages and disadvantages
- about polyethylene
- how plastic bags are made
- watchdog plastic bags information
- How plastic bags are made
- amount of plastic bags Waitrose give
- Tesco packaging information
- plastic bags advantages
- disadvantages of plastic bags
definition of polyethylene
- definition of degrade
- definition of thermoplastic
- definition of polymer
- definition of monomer
- definition of habitat
= - definition of pollution
- definition of atmosphere
– definition of petrochemicals
- definition of biodiversity
