Bag Carbon Footprint Calculator

Your details

HDPE is the thin single-use plastic bag. LDPE is a thicker reusable bag. PP is the stiff non-woven reusable bag sold at checkouts.
How many bags you bring home per week on average. For reusable bags, count each individual bag per trip.
bags/week
How many times each bag is used before being discarded. Enter 1 for single-use-only bags.
uses
CO2e per useHigher footprint than baseline
60g

Grams of CO2 equivalent per trip with this bag type

CO2e per bag (lifetime)3kg
Annual CO2e9.36kg
Break-even uses vs single-use plastic99uses
Annual CO2e saving vs single-use plastic-6.97kg
Break-even statusNot yet: 49 more reuses needed to reach break-even
CO2e per trip (g)60
60 g CO2e
Very low<16Low16-32Moderate32-50High50+

Each trip with your cotton tote bag emits 60.00 g CO2e.

  • One cotton tote bag has a lifetime footprint of 3.000 kg CO2e.
  • At 50 reuses per bag, each trip costs 60.00 g CO2e.
  • You need 49 more reuses before each trip beats the footprint of a single-use plastic bag.
  • Your current reuse count is not yet high enough to beat single-use plastic on a per-trip basis. Reuse more to close the gap.

Next stepCotton totes need many reuses to justify their production footprint. Wash them less frequently (cold wash, air dry) to keep their in-use emissions low.

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