Ep. 415: Is paper the right environmental choice?

Guest: Chris DeArmitt, President of Phantom Plastics

On June 22nd of 2022, the Government of Canada introduced its “Single-use Plastics Prohibition Regulations,” legislation that states that plastic checkout grocery bags are considered single-use if the bag breaks or tears if “used to carry 10 kilograms over a distance of 53 metres 100 times.”

A plastic straw is considered single-use if after washing it 100 times in a dishwasher, it changes shape. Does that make the straw or the bag a bad environmental choice? A paper straw that may survive a single use is not considered a bad environmental choice.

Plastic knives and forks are treated the same way if, after 100 washes, they change shape – then they are considered single-use and a bad choice. The day before recording this conversation, two paper catalogues arrived in the mail: unsolicited and unneeded. They won’t be used – is that a bad environmental choice?

“When it comes to banning single-use, we might be better off focusing on paper rather than plastic,” says leading plastics scientist Dr. Chris DeArmitt. He is the author of “Phantom Plastics,” a book that examines the prevailing thoughts about plastics. He points to the Bank of Canada, which studied plastic versus paper for the country's money and the decision was to print plastic money rather than paper because it was the better environmental choice.

Heresy, you say! How can that be? DeArmitt claims, “Life cycle analysis is the answer. Plastic money has seven times the lifespan of paper money.” When looking at the total impact of paper money, the carbon footprint and environmental costs far exceed that of plastic. DeArmitt starts by pointing to the weight of paper, saying, “The extra fuel required to transport paper over plastic is just one element in the life cycle analysis of money. And then add in the impact of harvesting trees, mashing them into pulp and paper and the limited lifespan.” And he says, “It all adds up to plastic being the best choice.”

DeArmitt continues, “Litter is created by people who can stop doing that by making better choices… When you attach value to plastic, it does not clog drains or end up in the sewer. The proof of that is in money. There are more than eight billion plastic bank notes printed each year and they do not get discarded.”

We invited Dr Chris DeArmitt to join us for a Conversation That Matters about plastics, their myths and their misconceptions.