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Plastic has a bad reputation. Blamed for everything from the credit crisis, to the ruination of Michael Jackson's face, the word 'plastic' is often used to describe something as cheap, superficial or throwaway.

But plastic plays a huge part in our lives. Strong, pliable and affordable, the modern world is indebted to it. If you drive a car, send an e-mail or buy a pie at the football, you are using plastic.

But are plastics any worse than other materials? Consider the green mantra - reduce, reuse, recycle, in that order. Plastic are often re-usable, with plastic shopping bags being at the very top of the list.

Reuse
Most products don’t get as much re-use as shopping bags. Used for everything from rubbish bin liners to knee protectors, shopping bags are very very useful.

Shopping bags in particular have a bad reputation. But taking them out of the chain would only mean that their common reuses would be replaced by more plastics. For instance, those who use them as bin liners would replace them with custom made bin liners (ie. more plastic bags!).

Recycling
Because plastic can often be recycled, it does not occupy a whole lot of landfill. In fact, Less than 4% of landfill is filled with plastics. Plastic bags only make up 1% of all landfill, and those bags are usually containing rubbish.

Landfill
Plastic's strength - hardiness and durability - means it hangs around the planet for a long time. And when disposed of incorrectly, this can lead to problems. However, it's often not noted that nothing breaks down easily without heat, air, light and water.

All materials within a landfill take a long time to break down, including paper.

But with plastics, at least you can be sure that they will cause no poisoning or pollution within a landfill, whereas many other materials will.

And unlike paper, plastics are UV degradable, but don't release carbon into the atmosphere upon degrading. And it's a little known fact that the production of plastics also doesn’t release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, nor does it in its degradation. Paper and plant matter do release carbon, with the latter releasing the potent greenhouse gas methane.

Plastics v paper

- Plastics use 72% less energy in manufacture than paper manufacturing.

- Paper is heavy, much heavier than plastics. So there is much less fuel used to transport plastics, which is always a win for the environment.

- Plastic production does not require deforestation.

- Paper is also 800% higher in price than plastics.

Reducing, re-using and recycling plastic.
So what can you do to help the environment? Here's a few tips for being green with plastics...

- Plastic items need to be as clean as possible for recycling. This prevents production problems further down the line. Give them a wash out if they need it before popping them into the recycle bin.

- Remove any labels from the plastic item for recycling purposes. They are a different material and need to be treated as a separate item.

- Get to know your plastics and try to only buy plastics that your council recycles.

- Re-use is preferable to recycling. Many sports drink bottles are great water bottles. Take-away containers are great for leftovers too. Before you recycle it, ask yourself if you can re-use it. This will save you money and the planet.

So, with whatever you use, reduce, reuse and recycle, with care and awareness!