A simplified version of the life cycle of grocery sacks follows. Acquisition/ Sack production production Disposal of raw and use materials Recycled sacks In the late 1970s, supermarkets began to replace paper sacks with poly (plastic) sacks. ethylene In the 1980s, a movement to go back to paper arose, primarily inspired by environmental considerations In the 1990s, a countermovement arose, claiming that paper sacks have a greater negative environmental impact than plastic ones