The Greenest Grocery Bag

What does a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study?

• Only how a product is disposed of.

• The full environmental impact of a product from its creation to its disposal.

• Only the cost of making a product.

• How popular a product is with consumers.

What material are single-use plastic bags primarily made from?

• Plant starches

• Wood pulp

• Petroleum

• Cotton

Which type of bag has the highest environmental impact during its production phase?

• Single-use plastic bags

• Paper bags

• Biodegradable plastic bags

• Cotton tote bags

According to the 2018 Danish Environmental Protection Agency report, how many times must a cotton bag be reused to have the same climate change impact as a single-use plastic bag?

• 1 time

• 6 times

• 131 times

• 149 times

Which type of bag requires the most reuses to have a lower total environmental impact than a single-use plastic bag?

• Paper bags

• Biodegradable plastic bags

• Reusable plastic bags

• Cotton bags

Why are plastic bags often not accepted by recycling programs?

• They are too heavy to sort.

• They get caught in sorting machines.

• They are not made of recyclable material.

• They are too expensive to process.

What is a major environmental problem caused by plastic bags that are not recycled?

• They release methane in landfills.

• They are easily picked up by wind and spread as litter.

• They quickly break down into harmless substances.

• They improve marine ecosystems.

What is the most effective way to reduce the environmental impact of any type of shopping bag?

• Always buy new biodegradable bags.

• Use each bag only once and then dispose of it.

• Reduce the number of bags you use and reuse them as many times as possible.

• Only use cotton bags, even if you don't reuse them often.