Is green shopping bag really environmentally friendly?

The author received a telephone consultation from a company recently. If non-woven reusable shopping bags are produced, what standards must be met? Is there a standard or related standard for reusable shopping bags or a reference?

Through investigations and consulting with industry experts, the author found that the current environmental protection shopping bag belongs to the vacuum zone of scientific definition and standard management, and lacks more and stricter relevant standards to regulate and consider.

The current status of the use of reusable shopping bags Currently, domestic large-scale supermarkets and shopping malls do not provide free plastic bags. In addition to charging for plastic shopping bags, they are replaced by non-woven shopping bags or paper tote bags, which include non-woven shopping. Bags occupy a dominant position and claim to be eco-friendly shopping bags. Non-woven shopping bags can be seen everywhere on the streets. Some large-scale well-known consumer manufacturers have also replaced non-woven shopping bags with the original plastic bags as fashion and promoted them in the name of providing environmental protection shopping bags.

For a time, the non-woven shopping bag and the "green shopping bag" were equated.

Countries such as Europe and the United States have strict restrictions on the use of plastic bags. For example, the US capital Washington has imposed a 5-cent tax on each plastic shopping bag since January 1, 2010. Some states do not even allow shops to provide plastic bags. Consumers can't even buy money. Most of these countries use paper, cotton or canvas bags.

What is a reusable shopping bag?

The eco-shopping bag is generally said to be reusable, and after it is discarded, the shopping bag, which is easily disassembled under natural conditions or does not cause environmental pollution, is less likely to break, leak, and become stronger than ordinary plastic bags.

Therefore, it can be seen that the environment-friendly shopping bag must satisfy several conditions:

1, can be recycled.

2, can be decomposed under natural conditions or does not cause pollution to the environment.

3, should have a certain strength.

4. The environmental protection shopping bag should also meet the requirements of antibacterial, formaldehyde, PH, azo, odor and other related requirements.

Is the non-woven shopping bag eco-friendly?

Through consulting the data, we learned that the main raw material of the current non-woven shopping bags is polypropylene, which is itself a kind of plastic, and it is difficult to decompose under natural conditions. Non-woven shopping bags are said to decompose in 6 months, but by adding photodegradants and photodegradation aids to polypropylene, the molecular chains of polypropylene are broken and turned into small molecules.

Is this green? With various questions, the author consulted a chemical fiber expert, eco-textile expert, and Professor Wang Jianping of Intertek Group.

Prof. Wang Jianping believes that “non-woven shopping bags and plastic bags made of polypropylene are also characterized by rapid decomposition, and their rapid decomposition is only aimed at polyethylene or polyamide (trade name nylon) as raw materials. Polypropylene can be decomposed into smaller particles in a short time by ultraviolet irradiation. People may not see it. Its physical properties have changed, but its chemical properties have not changed, and fine particles decomposed into soil However, the weight of non-woven shopping bags or woven shopping bags is far greater than that of plastic bags, and if the use time cannot be increased proportionately, it will be an accelerating and increasing amount of pollution. The environmental protection of non-woven fabrics is more concerned with its repeated use and recyclability."

Relevant chemical experts also pointed out that neither polypropylene nor polyethylene can be degraded, and only starch or natural fibers can degrade. Not seeing does not mean that there is no existence.

Non-woven shopping bags are not equal to green shopping bags.

In the true sense of environmental protection products, they should eventually be decomposed into water and carbon dioxide. At present, only natural fibers meet this requirement. In addition to the non-woven fabric itself, whether the printing and dyeing coating, Sewing Thread, etc. are environmentally friendly should also be considered as one of the conditions. If the raw materials are marked on the shopping bag, can we better guide consumers to the concept of environmental protection?

The lack of standards due to the introduction of standards has caused confusion in the market. Most of the shopping bags are covered with environmental protection clothing. Consumers' enthusiasm and money for this purpose do not achieve the desired goals. The state should set the relevant standards early and regulate the reusable shopping bags so that the reusable shopping bags are really environmentally friendly.

It is hoped that the genuine eco-friendly shopping bags will be widely used in the market as soon as possible, starting from scratch to protect the homes on which we depend.

Note: The quality standard for non-woven reusable shopping bags was held on December 28, 2009 in Shenzhen. This meeting is a conference before the finalization. This draft will be used as a national standard after it is submitted to the National Bureau of Standards for approval. In the future, non-woven fabric shopping bags will be used as the standard for production and sales, to overcome the current non-standard, chaotic production, low-quality chaos situation.