Infographic Written Analysis

For this project of presenting and researching a topic to create an infographic, I choose to stay within what is the new norm and a current issue in society which was recycling but more specifically the issue of transitioning from plastic bags to paper bags. I wanted to specify if the transformation was more essential or crucial to the environment and whether the solution would be more effective towards global warming. Recycling is a big issue globally, and many tweaks need to be made sooner rather than later to prolong the life of Earth. The change from plastic to paper has not been easy and has been costly and within this change, there were other bag options introduced or made more aware of such as tote bags, bags made from cloth-like material, and bags made from materials that were recycled.

 The format I would have to present these issues will be a compare and contrast the two bag options and see which harms or helps the environment. Ideally, this topic is to make everyone aware of what options suit best for them and the environment in the long run, however, this infographic can also be displayed in supermarkets at the checkout counters, above recycling garbage cans, and also to promote the sale of tote, cloth, or other recycled material bags. I choose to pick this organizational pattern because it would be easier to tell which product is a fluke and how to establish more convenient and accessible items.  I wanted to stay within the recycling colors and make the words stand out in black or white and put the two components in two columns and present questions on the side of the columns to compare the two.

The information I decided to focus on was what I was able to receive from basic and simple information in simple English versus the numerous lab reports and numbers used to compare and contrast the two. I wanted to show how many resources are used still from a scientific view since my major is Liberal Arts od Science because a lot of people may not realize although plastic bags are bad for certain types of environments but also the production of paper bags is an added to harming society because it not only takes away from a natural resource of oxygen but more oil to produce the bag and uses natural gas to create which is also adding to the pollution in the environment. I also wanted to include the duration it takes for the bags to recycle if they are recyclable and the cost of the bags to make to further give an outlook on why we may have to pay for one bag and not the other.

For the infographic design, I wanted to keep it simple using the recycling colors which are blue, green, white, and sometimes black. I used two different greens for the column’s distinction so they wouldn’t mesh together, and you would be able to distinguish the two categories apart. For the title, I choose to go nig to grasp people’s attention because it will ideally be placed in busy locations and people will easily miss it with small lettering. I chose to place the water bottles tilt to the side to resemble littering and the garbage cans to show the missing bottles and picked an empty tree with no leaves and bare branches to show the missing elements due to the making of paper bags. The other icons I picked were meant to be minimal but crucial to the content because these are icons that we cannot receive back once used and they are important to our daily use. I also picked icons that are similar to the color palette of the infographic, so it stands out and also blend in with the infographic.

I originally was going to do an infographic on studying habits and how to overcome them because it can be relatable to students in the class and students globally but the research for a topic like that, the numbers are all over the place and there is too much research on it that will make the topic hard to narrow down because the numbers are based on students in different states and countries and all these places have different ways of student life that will result in crazy results to compress down into a simple graph or an understanding infographic. I hope people can realize that using bags made from recycled materials or tote bags is more efficient and dependable for the longevity of shopping. Even hard plastic bags are not a good source to use because it is still plastic and an even worse material to break down in terms of recycling.

 

CITATIONS

Sustainable shopping-which bag is best? National Geographic Society. (2022, July). Retrieved December 12, 2022, from https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/sustainable-shoppingwhich-bag-best 

10 facts about single-use plastic bags. 10 Facts About Single-use Plastic Bags. (n.d.). Retrieved December 12, 2022, from https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/population_and_sustainability/sustainability/plastic_bag_facts.html 

Conway, C. (2007, April). Taking aim at all those plastic bags – The New York Times. The New York Times. Retrieved December 12, 2022, from https://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/01/weekinreview/01basics.html 

Feature article – how much energy is used to make a plastic bag? (feature article). Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2004, February). Retrieved December 12, 2022, from https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Previousproducts/1301.0Feature%20Article212004 

Analyst, S. S.-H. P., Smith-Heisters, S., Analyst, P., Green, K. P., Nastasi, V., & Gilroy, L. (2008, April 17). Paper grocery bags require more energy than plastic bags. Reason Foundation. Retrieved December 12, 2022, from https://reason.org/commentary/paper-grocery-bags-require-mor/