Project 4.5, Anyways…

Here is my LCA after tight revision:

1. Goal and scope definition: Paper bags- Grocery bags made from paper to supply to the customer in case of no reusable bag. Used in leu of the former plastic bags.

2. Inventory analysis: inputs- paper bags are made from trees, a renewable resource, water to water the trees. Outputs- production costs (water, fuel, cut down trees), some aren’t recyclable because of added sturdiness in fibers, but don’t worry, Wegmans paper bags are recyclable.

3. Impact assessment: One of the biggest problems consumers run into is making these bags reusable. Obviously, Wegmans wants to make money- they are a grocery store after all, everyone needs to visit a grocery store sometime in their life- so with these extreme amounts of customer visits per day, they need to estimate that everyone will come unprepared with a reusable bag. The high amounts of bags required takes a lot of water to produce. The cost for Wegmans is less expensive to use the unfortified bags but that also makes room for more rips, weakness (holding less groceries and using MORE bags) and manufacturing errors. If they use the fortifies bags, then they cannot extend their lives much longer because they are either unrecyclable or no longer biodegradable.

4. Interpretation: Basically ,the choice is to use less expensive bags and use more water to produce them, or by using more expensive bags less and inserting more intense fibers to shorten their life and eventual return to the soil.

And now we have reached the toughest part. I am also going to leave this unanswered because while I covered all of the bases to the best of my ability, I would assume that me not being in LCA school speaks for itself. I’d need more time to meditate on it if I were actually the one making this kind of decision but I think that in any case, it is probably best for the planet if the products can withstand the test of time while also being reincorporated into the earth’s system so I am leaning towards less expensive bags high quantity. The con of this choice is the water intensity that it requires to make paper bags. Moral of the story is that making decisions is hard, even for something as simple as a paper bag.

https://stanfordmag.org/contents/paper-plastic-or-reusable