Do your reusable coffee cups, green bags really help the environment?

So you use green bags on the weekly shop and take your reusable coffee cup to work — but are you actually helping to save the planet or are you being conned?

Are beeswax coverings for our foods better for the environment than plastic? Our environmental experts weigh in on the issue.

So you use green bags during the weekly shop and have a reusable coffee cup — but does that mean anything when it comes to saving the planet?

Three environmental experts have weighed on what eco-habits work, and what behaviours are doing more harm than good.

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Do you remember to bring your green bag to the supermarket? Picture: File.

GREEN BAGS VS PLASTIC BAGS

There was uproar when the grey, single-use bags were removed from Coles and Woolworths check-outs last year.

Opposition leader Bill Shorten reignited the debate when he pledged a ban on all single-use plastic bags nationally if Labor won the upcoming federal election.

But will removing all single-use bags help?

RMIT school of design senior lecturer Simon Lockrey said it took about one year of using a green bag per person to see to see any environmental benefits.

Mr Lockrey uses a Life Cycle Assessment to determine the environmental impact associated with all stages of a products life.

He said if you used a reusable product, like a green bag, overtime instead of a disposable item, there would be a payback period.

So if you keep re-using your green bag, there’d be less need to produce single-use plastic bags, which would inturn help the environment.

Some reusable glass keep cups aren’t as eco friendly as other products on the market.

Environmentalists use a Life Cycle Assessment to track the eco benefits of a product throughout its life.

REUSABLE COFFEE CUPS

Just because you bought a reusable cup to put your morning brew in from the cafe, doesn’t mean you’re helping the environment.

University of Melbourne’s Professor Michele Acuto says it depends on how many times you re-use the cup.

“You have to ask yourself, how many times will you re-use the item. In some cases, in average cases, by the time you hit 100 uses the reusable item is considered worthy of replacing the disposable,” he says.

“If you get a reusable coffee cup, but only use it for a couple of months, then you’re making more harm than saving the problem.”

Professor Acuto says even if you use a reusable coffee cup, the material used to create the cup may not be the best for the environment.

He said recycling glass wasn’t economically viable and was cheaper to import glass bottles from abroad than recycling the product in Australia.

PLANET ARK RESEARCH LIFTS LID

WHAT ABOUT BIO-DEGRADABLE ITEMS?

Forgotten to take your reusable cup to work with you today and opting for a bio-biodegradable, single-use instead?

Professor Acuto said while these items were recycle, it was better to avoid.

“We’re continuing to produce waste, not reduce it,” he said.

Australia’s recycling infrastructure isn’t as sophisticated as other countries, with people sorting recyclables and non recyclables by hand.

Last month, NewsCorp reported 94 per cent of Australians are still putting one or more non-recyclable items in the recycling bin.

At the time, Planet Ark Deputy CEO Rebecca Gilling said people were confused about what items were recyclable.

“Recycled items go on a conveyor belt and get hand sorted and if you put recycled items in a plastic bag it’ll get thrown out, so your efforts are wasted,” she said.

Ms Gilling said bottles must be rinsed, dried and then crushed with the lid put back on before being recycled.

The jury’s out on whether beeswax covering, instead of plastic cling wrap, is beneficial to the environment.

“When it goes through the crusher, liquid can leak out and damage the paper stream,” she said.

She said egg cartons must be flattened, or they’ll bounce off the conveyor belt and end up in the plastic and aluminium steam instead.

While pizza boxes were flat enough to go through, they must be cleared of leftovers.

“A little bit of grease is not a huge deal … you can tear off the pizza box lid and put that in the recycling bin, and compost the bottom or put it into the waste bin,” she said.

Ms Gilling said foil must be scrunched up so it doesn’t fall through holes in recycling machinery.

Since China stopped taking some of Australia’s recyclables in 2018, the country has been at capacity, with some items going directly to landfill.

BEESWAX COVERING

While the premise of not buying single use plastic items is great in theory, Deakin University environmental sciences lecturer Trevor Thornton says there’s not a lot of studies out there to support the claim beeswax coverings were a positive plastic alternative.

“The evidence, again, is not quantifiable evidence.”

Mr Thornton also said: “Avoidance and reduction (of plastics) is better than nothing.”

Are metal straws better than plastic straws? Picture: Patrick Gee

METAL/BAMBOO STRAWS

Mr Lockrey says if you’re swapping your single-use plastic straws to a metal straw, then there would be a payback period. Meaning, the more you use to your metal straw instead of plastic straws, the more you’ll give back to the environment.

VERDICT?

We’re making the right decisions in eliminating our individual single-use products — which does help the greater good.

“Do the reusable option and do it often enough so it becomes a daily routine,” Mr Lockrey said.

Professor Acuto said while it was interesting to learn about the life cycle analysis of certain green products, he said it was ‘dangerous’ to start ranking them.

“This could devalue other products,” he says.

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@kara_irving