Almost everyday I see a new commercials saying “No more plastic, we switched to paper [straws/bags/whatever]!” I understand that it’s good to not use plastic, but won’t this contribute to cutting down more trees and hurt our environment as well?

Question

Almost everyday I see a new commercials saying “No more plastic, we switched to paper [straws/bags/whatever]!” I understand that it’s good to not use plastic, but won’t this contribute to cutting down more trees and hurt our environment as well?

In: Earth Science

Answer 1

When wood is burned or rots, CO2 is released, bad. But when trees grow, they absorb CO2, good. It turns out this pretty much balances out. This makes paper and wood effectively carbon neutral.

In fact, you can keep the wood around for a long time (in buildings, or other long term uses), then that CO2 is kept out of the atmosphere for decades or even centuries, all the while growing new trees to pull more CO2.