Carrefour's plastic bag that carried more ink than bag

Carrefour's plastic bag that carried more ink than bag

In 2006, Carrefour was giving away plastic bags printed with Susana Griso's face in full colour. The result: a bag where the ink weighed almost as much as the plastic, with a print job so heavy it barely let the material show through. Two decades later, while we pay €0.10 per bag and feel eco-friendly, the awkward question is: how much of a carbon footprint did that advertising campaign leave behind?

More ink than plastic: the ecological mirage

The image, recently resurfaced, shows an ordinary plastic bag but with a layer of ink so dense it is almost opaque. The user who found it points out that "the print drips ink" and that the bag has "more ink than bag". At a time when environmental discourse demonised plastic, nobody noticed that manufacturing that ink and the printing process could have a bigger environmental impact than the empty bag itself.

The irony of the free bag

Back then, bags were given away. Now we pay for them and feel virtuous. But the true environmental cost of that fully printed bag probably far exceeded that of today's plain bags. The carbon footprint of the printing, the pigments, and the waste of material to make the advertising profitable are factors rarely counted in official narratives.

The paradox of selective sustainability

The 2006 Carrefour bag is a symbol of how media environmentalism has chosen its battles. Attacking plastic is easy; measuring the total impact of production processes is another matter. Meanwhile, the image of Susana Griso, now married and with her own winery, remains a reminder that sustainability has its contradictions too.

The debate remains open. But at least that bag, with its excess of ink, left us with a lesson: what looks eco-friendly is not always so, and what was demonised may not have been the biggest problem.