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When plastic was declared the main enemy of the planet, plastic bags began to be replaced with biodegradable ones. We explain why biodegradable bags are not the best alternative to plastic ones
The material was prepared by the author of the Ecologina telegram channel especially for Trends.
Since sustainability has become a trend, there have been many companies producing not plastic, but “bio-bags” and “eco-bags”. But not all of them meet environmental standards. To understand whether alternative types of plastic are good for the environment, let’s look at the terms.
Bioplastic does not mean environmentally friendly
Bioplastics called bio-based plastics. Such a material is made from biomass (corn, straw, sawdust), and not from fossil resources – this is its advantage over conventional petroleum-based plastic.
There are many bioplastic bags on the market, and manufacturers appeal to the environmental friendliness of their products due to the natural components in the composition. Only they do not indicate that the time of bioplastic decomposition in the environment can be the same as that of plastics. This means that any plastic can be called biodegradable, since after a few hundred years it will still decompose. The only difference is that bioplastics will release into the atmosphere a greenhouse gas – methane, which intensifies the climate crisis, and ordinary plastic will decompose into microplastics that poison the soil and water bodies.
Biodegradable plastic is better, but not so simple
Rђ RІRѕS, biodegradable plastics, indeed, can decompose completely over time. The catch is that biodegradable plastic products do not indicate for how long and under what environmental conditions it will decompose. Most people read the term “biodegradable” as “bury it in your garden or throw it in the ocean, it will completely decompose.” But in fact, most biodegradable plastics can only decompose in a special industrial facility where temperature, humidity and light are controlled.
Biodegradable plastics include oxo-degradable, hydro-degradable and compostable plastics, which “dissolve” when exposed to oxygen, water, or bacteria.
Biodegradable plastic materials, which are labeled as compostable, are only composted in industrial settings, not at home.
Oxo-degradable bags cannot be sent to landfills. Under the influence of oxygen, such a bag will simply disintegrate into microplastics, and the additives responsible for oxo decomposition are potentially toxic. So much so that, due to their harmful environmental impact, the European Commission in January 2018 recommended a ban on the use of oxo-degradable plastics in the European Union.
In the worst case, the manufacturer calls “biodegradable” plastic bags with special additives that accelerate the decomposition of the bag into microplastics. In such cases, the inscriptions on packages and packages “safe for nature”, “concern for the environment” can only be taken in quotation marks.
What packages to use?
Unfortunately, even reading tons of reference material and understanding the recycling processes for each type of plastic will not help answer this question. The fact is that bag manufacturers rarely indicate the composition of their products, and biodegradable bags are not accepted at waste collection points for recycling, because there is no suitable infrastructure for them.
Most clearly, the complexity of recycling all biodegradable materials is demonstrated by a study conducted by scientists from the University of Plymouth in the UK. In this study, biodegradable, oxo-biodegradable, compostable and plastic bags were placed in different environmental conditions for three years: left in the open, buried in the ground, immersed in water and tested in controlled laboratory conditions.
In the open air, all the packages broke into fragments after nine months, and with those that were immersed in soil and salt water, almost nothing happened. Only the compostable bag completely dissolved in water in three months, but remained in the soil for 27 months. Biodegradable and oxo-biodegradable bags have retained their strength even after three years. The experiment showed that none of the packages disappeared without a trace, no magical decomposition occurred – even the decomposed packages left behind particles.
Biodegradable materials can only degrade through industrial disposal. In the natural environment, the impact of microbes, oxygen, humidity and other factors that cannot be reproduced in everyday life is important for this.
In countries where there is no developed infrastructure to ensure proper disposal of biodegradable materials, the introduction of compostable and biodegradable bags could increase plastic pollution.
Environmental think tank Green Alliance noted that the term “biodegradable” makes consumers think that the bag can be thrown away in good conscience, which will create even more environmental pollution.
As a result, it doesn’t matter in which bag you carry your purchases home from the store or throw out the garbage: in a biodegradable garbage bag or in a plastic one. In everyday life, all biodegradable bags turn out to be no better than ordinary plastic bags, and stores set prices for them two to three times higher, expecting that we will be willing to pay more to save our planet.
For now, the only sustainable option, the best alternative, is to reduce the use of plastic packaging rather than replacing it with other materials.
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