Inventions Humans Can Do Without

Inventions humans can do without.

There are many inventions that humans can do without. There are many that are useless in society. There are also some that can cause major problems like death and disease. But one hurts society, is hazardous, it has alternatives, but people continue to use it. That invention is a plastic bag.

Plastic bags are very hazardous; they omit CO2 which is harmful gas that hurts the atmosphere. Plastic bags are the cause of major environmental concerns. Statistics show that we are consuming more and more plastics every year. It is estimated that an average individual uses around 130 plastic bags per year. All that Co2 adds up making our planet a bad place to live in. Also plastic bags are made from a non-renewable natural resource: petroleum. This means that they’re hard to be recycled or don’t have a big recyclable use.

One alternative is the paper bag. The paper bag is an environmentally safe alternative. It’s also lightweight and has more recyclable uses than plastic bags. Also, paper bags are usually made from recycled material.

Plastic bags do have some pros though. While paper bags are biodegradable and often considered a better alternative than plastic, many people are not aware that it actually takes more than four times the energy to make a paper bag as a plastic one. More energy means more pollutants, and fewer trees mean the Earth has a harder time processing those pollutants. For retailers, one major advantage of plastic bags is that they are cheap. According to The New York Times, a standard plastic shopping bag costs only a penny to produce. Its paper counterpart costs about 5 cents, while compostable plastic bags cost from 8-10 cents each. When bulk purchasing, retailers can often get plastic bags for a fraction of a cent each.

For retailers, ease of use is a draw of plastic bags, which are easy to open, pack and store. In addition, many people use plastic bags for a variety of household tasks, including...