A cotton tote bag: carbon footprint

Carbonle#6 of 16

👜Carbon footprintA cotton tote bag

3.5kg CO₂e

one bag, made

carbonle.com

A cotton tote bag comes in at about 3.5 kg CO₂e (one bag, made).

Of the 16 things you buy Carbonle tracks, A cotton tote bag sits at #6 from the lightest — mid-pack.

This is the one-off cost of making the thing, before you use it. It's why a reusable tote only wins after many trips, and why a phone's footprint is the factory, not the charger.

Cotton is thirsty and land-hungry. You'd need ~150 uses to beat a plastic bag.

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Compare with

Figures from Danish EPA carrier-bag LCA (2018), licensed government LCA.
How we get these numbers: Methodology.