2. Research methodology
2.1. Study of impact of various shopping bags on carbon footprint
This paper revolves around the study of global climate change
due to the production, usage and disposal phases of various types of
shopping bags in China, Hong Kong and India. The initial step of this
study is the collection of secondary data for Life cycle inventory
(LCI) for various types of shopping bags for the three countries
under consideration in this present study. For different types of
shopping bags such as plastic (HDPE), paper (Kraft), non-woven
(PP) bags and woven cotton bags, the data were obtained from the
final report prepared for Environment Australia in 2002 (Nolan ITU
et al., 2002). An LCI of different types of shopping bags under
consideration in this study also appears in an updated version of
this study published in 2004 (ExcelPlas Australia et al., 2004). The
basic data referred from these sources were converted to the
functional unit assumed for China, Hong Kong and India.
The data arising from this study included the total energy
consumed by a bag to get it manufactured, where total energy
represents process and feedstock energy and the quantity of
pollutants emitted to the atmosphere during the manufacturing
process.