If only it were that easy to save our planet. However biodegradable plastic bags are certainly a good place to start. In truth, no one knows how long it takes for a standard plastic trash bag to disintegrate – mostly because no one has been able to measure it. Which means they truly could be around forever. Even when the plastic is degradable (which is different than biodegradable), it never really goes away. Scientists do know is those pieces of the ordinary and degradable plastic bags still linger. These scraps can cause a real hazard especially in the ocean where they are eaten by sea animals and work their way up the food chain to humans. Yick.
There are some new degradable plastics that do break down within a few weeks when exposed to the weather, but these aren’t biodegradable and are truly never gone later. So what’s an eco friendly person supposed to do? Use paper? We all know that’s almost as harmful as plastic. And unless you’re able to sustain a 100% compostable and recycling household, we all have trash that needs to be thrown out on the curb.
Biodegradable trash bags, on the other hand, really do disappear. Microorganisms break down biodegradable plastic into water, biomass and carbon dioxide without harmful chemical leftovers. Gotta love those little guys! Unfortunately, you still have to be careful. When biodegradable plastic bags break down without oxygen, which is hard to come by in a landfill, they emit methane, the dreaded greenhouse gas.
What then, is the best way to use biodegradable trash bags and save Mother Earth? Well first of all, look for products with Biodegradable Products Institute Logo which means that the plastic product will truly break down and be digested by those microorganisms. With the new degradable plastics mentioned above, a lot of people have jumped on the eco-friendly bandwagon and are making dubious claims about how well their plastic products will really degrade. By looking for the words biodegradable or the Institute’s logo, you know you’ll be buying the “right” kind of plastic. For now, true biodegradable plastics are found mostly in trash bags, eating utensils and food containers.
The true benefit of biodegradable trash bags comes when they are sent to a commercial composting facility. The composting process allows enough oxygen and microbes to get to the bags so that truly “breaks down” and is digested away.
Even though much of residential trash doesn’t go to a commercial composting facility biodegradable trash bags really are a better option for an earth friendly way to dispose of garbage. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of years from now, then the scientists decide to study 21st century Earth, do you want to be remembered by the number of plastic trash bags? Of course not. So start doing Earth and posterity a favor and when asked for paper or plastic, answer, biodegradable plastic, please?
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