The biodegradable plastic bag...............

Recently I was shopping at Farmers and the product I purchased was packaged in a Farmers branded bag which I immediately felt guilty about and thought I should have said no I don't need one. But some text on it caught my eye and I wanted to investigate. It states on it:

100% degradable

www.epi-global.com

This bag is totally biodegradable

Please reuse this bag in the interests of the environment

ELLDEX

www.elldex.com

I am aware of many bags that state 100% biodegradable but this still means 100's of years of biodegrading so I thought that I'd start a bit of investigation.  This blog post is not going to give the answers, but I will take you on a journey as I start to research this. 

Plastics and plastic bags should be of interest and concern to everyone in every household and every industry.  Look around you now - plastic is likely to be everywhere.  Even the wooden modular box on which I stand my computer (for my standing desk) has a plastic coating on it.  Our recycling bin is full of plastics and you only have to look back at previous blog posts to see the issues with plastic (especially look at the one about bottled water).

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Bio-degradable plastic packaging

Firstly I went to the epi-global website and had a look around.  Its a good website and worth visiting, remembering that its a business making money.  I couldn't find all the information I wanted so I was keen to start a dialogue with them.   

Sending web inquiries has variable responses in my experience so I will report back on the response if I get one, as I have only just sent it.  Below I have copied the initial communication as I thought you might be interested in the questions I initially want to ask.  When you get engaged with sustainability you increasingly find you have to ask lots of questions and dig deep for concrete answers. 

"Hi

I am the sustainability champion at my workplace (and I work in education so what I learn is disseminated to a wide range of people) and I just wanted to find out a bit more about your product

• What is the time frame for biodegrading?
• What do you mean by biomass because I am struggling to reconcile the definitions on the web with plastics breakdown?
• Do you have any peer reviewed scientific articles that I can access to read more about this technology.
• Does the technology have uses in hard plastics or only soft plastics such as food wraps and plastic bags?
• In terms of the whole situation of oil supplies being limited and as plastic is a product of this industry as a company what are you doing to find sustainable packaging solutions for example?

Many thanks for taking the time to respond..........."

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I then visited the Elldex website.  I coped this quote off the site "We are committed to providing packaging that benefits the environment, with a variety of environmentally-friendly products manufactured from recycled, re-usable, degradable or bio-degradable materials."

It seems that they purchase the EPI-global technology and then their business is to provide packaging solutions for the Australasian market.  I decided at this stage not to contact Elldex for more answers.  I will wait for epi-global to respond first. 

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The Elldex website had a suggested link of this website: http://www.savetheplasticbag.com/ 

Off that website I found this:

"85% of plastic bags used in the United States are made in the United States. Plastic bags are made out of polyethylene. In the United States, ethylene is made of ethane which is extracted from natural gas. As a result, 85% of plastic bags used in the United States are not made out of oil.

The ethane must be removed from the natural gas anyway to lower the BTU value of the natural gas to an acceptable level. Ethane burns too hot to be allowed to remain in high levels in natural gas that is delivered to homes and businesses for fuel. There is nothing else that the ethane can be used for except to make ethylene. If ethane is not used to make plastic, it will have to be burned off, resulting in greenhouse gas emissions.

Using the ethane to make plastic does not in any way reduce the amount of fuel available for transportation or power generation or increase our energy imports."

There are also some interesting figures on this page about space and breakdown products of paper vs plastic.

Remember of course that this website is run by people that don't want the plastic bag banned, so as long as you read it with an open mind it contains some interesting facts and figures.  I have read on many other websites about the paper vs plastic debate and there is also interesting reading to be had about the environmental costs of producing paper vs plastic bags. 

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Reducing packaging

At the end of the day packaging has environmental costs in production, transport and during breakdown in landfill so our first priority should be to reduce our use of it.  Anything that needs to go into a rubbish bin - recycling or landfill has an environmental cost.

So what can we do?

• Always carry a reusable shopping bag
• If you must get a plastic bag at a shop - choose a shop that uses bags with biodegradable technology and reuse it as much as possible before putting it in the bin.
• When thinking about purchasing plastic bags for your work place ask yourself some questions such as:

1. Do you actually need them?
2. What are the possible alternatives?
3. If you do decide to purchase research the green credentials such as biodegradable and also made from recycled plastic are good things to look for. 

• When purchasing products for you workplace to sell look at the packaging - are there alternatives with more environmentally friendly and less packaging?  

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Composting

Going back to the  epi-global website there is a section on composting.  Although it states that the technology is not accepted for composting, it does indicate the products are bio-safe to use: Quote from the website

"Standards exist for plastics to be designated as compostable. EPI’s TDPA® incorporated products do not meet these standards, primarily because they do not biodegrade quickly enough in a compost environment. Nonetheless, operators of a number of managed compost facilities accept bags using this technology as an affordable alternative to generally more expensive technologies that meet the standard requirements. Properly designed bags utilizing TDPA® technology disintegrate to meet compost quality requirements and, while they do not biodegrade quickly enough to meet compostable plastics standards, this can be an advantage as they sequester carbon in the soil and contribute to soil structure and fertility."

So I thought I'd also try my own experiment and put the plastic bag pictured above in our compost bin.  I'll help it along a bit by shredding it up and keep my fingers crossed that it doesn;t kill my worms!  I'll let you know.........................

 The shredded plastic bag on my office floor

 

The bag in our compost bin.  Feels quite wrong putting plastics in there but I am willing to try for the benefit of science and the planet! and then below I have stirred the compost a little so the plastic is spread a bit more.  I'll do that again next time I am in adding organic waste and I will post more photos over coming weeks as I notice the bag disappearing.  The big question is will it happen in my lifetime?

Have a great and sustainable weekend

Francesca