A recent national study of the trash discarded in several representative areas confirmed that plastics constitute a smaller proportion of all trash than paper products do, whether the trash is measured by weight or by volume  The damage that a given weight or volume of trash does to the environment is roughly the same whether the trash consists of plastics or paper products
Contrary to popular opinion, ttherefore, the current use of plastics actually does less harm to the environment nationwide than that of paper products
contrary to popular opinion, a shift away from the use of paper products to the use of plastics would benefit the environment nationwide