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

There are literally trillions of trees, and we can replant them.

There are literally more trees on Earth than stars in the visible universe.

And one tree supplies for thousands of different products, in the case of things like paper literally thousands of reams of it.

Compare and contrast to the damage caused and the chemistry involved in creating plastic from oil from the ground.

Trees are a far better resource for this, but they aren’t the very cheapest, hence they have gone out of fashion recently in favour of cheap-but-damaging oil. Now that environmental damage is added back into the cost, trees actually win out. Even if it means we have to replant as we go.