Update on biodegradable garbage bags
By Karina | January 28, 2008
Last week we received an email from a reader about reusing plastic bags as garbage can liners. It reminded me that I never updated y’all about the experiment I’ve been doing with corn-based biodegradable plastic bags as my kitchen garbage bags! I mentioned the rationale on the Q&A on tossing trash when you’re bag free.
To start with, I ran into some problems. The bags I bought are the biobags in the 3-gallon size. They just fit into my kitchen garbage can. These bags are biodegradable, which seems to mean “fall apart very easily.” I used biobags through the end of my CSA season with great success to wrap up vegetables and store in the fridge. But when it came to the garbage can, the slightest amount of moisture wrecked havoc with the bag and it fell apart straight-away. This happened a few times, and it was kind of a pain - because I wasn’t using the bags to carry trash around, but to keep my garbage can clean I so didn’t have to wash it out constantly. As I mentioned earlier, the best situation would be for me to dump the garbage out in the big can outside of my apartment building without a bag, because the big can has a bag in it already - but I just didn’t want to have to wash out my garbage can frequently.
Of course, I shouldn’t be surprised by the falling apart. The bags are essentially made of cornstarch, and of course they will fall apart. That’s what makes them good, right? They will biodegrade in a landfill (or in the truck on the way to the landfill). But it wasn’t what I wanted to happen *in* my kitchen. So I relapsed, dear readers, and for a couple of months I used regular plastic shopping bags. I still haven’t used up all of the ones under my sink, after all!
Recently, though, I’ve come across a compromise that I’m happy with. I use the biobags as a garbage can liner and save and reuse bags and containers that I’d be tossing anyway for the wet garbage I have to get rid of. For example: I eat a lot of crackers, so there are always cracker sleeves in my trash. I also have a fair number of milk cartons leaving my house and those aren’t recyclable in my municipality - so I rip the top open and rinse them, and use that to collect the wet garbage. I leave the cracker sleeve or the milk carton inside of the can to one side, and put regular garbage onto the other side.
I still don’t think this is a perfect solution. I don’t want to use paper bags as liners either, because if anything is sent to a landfill I assume it will stay there forEVER (landfills don’t have good environments for decomposition - not enough water and oxygen), and I don’t want to send paper bags to landfill purgatory. The cornstarch-based bags with their immediate biodegradability seem to be the most efficient and least bulky way of tossing things.
But this solution only works for me because my apartment building uses bag liners in their large trash cans already. I don’t know what I would do if I was responsible for back-door-to-curb disposal. I’m sure municipalities require a plastic bag that won’t decay so the garbage carriers don’t have to worry about scraps flying around.
Have you come up with any good solutions? what works for your household?
Topics: Waste |
Thanks for addressing this, and for doing the experimenting so that your readers don’t have to! I may give this wet-dry dual system a chance. The only partial solution I have come up with so far is that I only bring home plastic grocery bags that can be used in our garbage can. I no longer get bags that are too big or too small from stores. This has reduced my bag use a bit, but I still rely on those grocery bags . . . at least for now.
thanks for the reminder, talya! if you figure out another solution, please let us know!
There is a solution which is Bioplast Biodegradable Garbage Bags produced with a unique formula of bacteria enzyme base substrate as against starch base used by other manufacturers world over.
Starch is the reserve carbohydrate of plants. The modification of its properties by chemical means is a key factor in its use in corn-starch based biodegradable bags which has a cost addition of 30%-35%. These bags are not as strong or durable as polymer (plastic) bags. Also starch based products can comprise of genetically modified crops (GM Crops).
Bioplast is using its own (patented) unique formula of bacteria enzyme base substrate which is the only biotechnology in the world that is completely bio-degradable as per ASTM and EN/ISO standards, durable and strong with a very low cost addition.
www.bioplast.com.tr
thanks for the tip! are these bags biodegradable under every-day conditions, or do they have to be composted in special conditions (like most durable corn-based plastics) to break down?
We have been recycling and composting so much that we have very little trash to bring out. A lot of our trash ends up being plastic bags from inside the cereal boxes or chip bags, etc. So, we’ve just been using those bags and putting all we can inside those and then tossing them into the trash bin outside when it’s full-maybe once a week. There’s no bag requirement for our trash pick up but I do worry about animals getting into the open cans so I try to make sure any meat scraps gets wrapped up really well. The bags we’re using don’t break down but since they would be going in the trash anyway it shouldn’t matter.
Thanks so much for bringing this up. I have been doing essentially what you have been doing — using up my dwindling stash of plastic bags (gone) and now, using plastic wrapping from other purchases or packaging (like my dog food bags). I have eyed the biodegradable bags with interest but worry about the wet factor as we haven’t set up a composting system yet. Hope you come up with an answer…. appreciate the post.
I recently did a post on compostable cutlery which takes 18 months to compost under “commercial composting” conditions. So I’m surprised to hear that these bags are falling apart before you even empty the garbage can.
I guess these manufacturers are still looking for the sweet spot where the products are usable but can still be composted at home.
Unfortunately in my New Jersey town, we have to pay for garbage collection and they will only take it away if it’s in one of the garbage company’s special bags (just a regular plastic bag with a logo on it). That’s why I like to compost so much. Besides being good for the garden, I’m also paying less for garbage removal.
Nice post. Keep us updated on any new information that you come across.
Thanks Anthony! Your compost blog is a great resource!
[…] Update on biodegradable garbage bags […]
Get Bag-To-Nature from Indaco Manufacturing, stronger than BioBags as they are made from a blend of potato and corn starch, they are thus also made from RENEWABLE resources, unlike enzyme based bags which are from OIL based resources.
Links to where you can buy these bags are on my research site, here
http://www.stanelco.devisland.net/New/HTML/Find_Products.htm
Also forget degradable and oxo-degradable or anything with ‘additives’ as they are all based on OIL plastics like polyethylene or polyproplylene and DO NOT COMPOST, especially in wet conditions in landfill. There is SERIOUS concern about the claims on these bags, such that they DO NOT biodegrade as claimed, contain heavy metals (like EPI additve based, currently being taken to court in Australia for false claims) like cadmium, also that NOBODY KNOWS what effect they will have when the plastic breaks down into small pieces and is taken up by the food chain.
Compostable plastics from RENEWABLE resources are in a closed loop of CO2, the plants consume it when growing and it released when the bag composts, OIL based plastics DO NOT have this factor, they use fossil fuel NON-RENEWABLE resources, and the CO2 they give off when disposed is IN ADDITION to what is already in the atmosphere.
Read these
http://www.stanelco.devisland.net/BPI%20Assessment%20of%20Oxos%20v5.pdf
http://www.stanelco.devisland.net/paternostre.pdf
Look here
http://www.stanelco.devisland.net/New/HTML/Links.htm
http://www.bpiworld.org/
E-Mail me on my website if you want to discuss this further with me, I have a massive collection of research, and many contacts in the Bioplastics industry.
Karina, very intersting and well thoght out article on compostable bags. Indaco Manufacturing Ltd. makes a line of bags that are hands down the strongest and most tear and leak proff bag on the market. It has been a very frustrating job of mine to try and convince retailers to stock our Canadian made bags. What retailers don’t understand is that providing inferior products such as the bags mentioned in you article only helps encougage apathy and decreases participation in curbside organic collection. I am so confident in my products that I will ship you any quantity of bags that you would need to test knowing full well the consequences. Our BAG-TONATURE bags are BPI certified .
I look forward to your response
Hi Richard,
I haven’t seen your bags in my local stores, can you tell me more about them? specifically, if they require special composting conditions to biodegrade?
I would *love* to test a couple in my kitchen garbage can. you can email me at karina at tinychoices dot com.
Thank you!