When biodegradable trash bags wind up in landfills, decomposition happens at a much slower rate than if the trash were exposed to air, light and moisture. As a result, methane gas gets released into the atmosphere. In fact, pound for pound, methane contributes 20 times more to the greenhouse effect than carbon dioxide over a year period.
Simple: Buy compostable trash bags. While the terms biodegradable and compostable are often used interchangeably, there are a few key differences when it comes to garbage:. Compostable trash bags are regulated; biodegradable trash bags are not.
In other words, compostable trash bags meet an industry standard that is government-approved. Just look for the designation of BPI-certified from the Biodegradable Products Institute , which is your assurance that your compostable trash bags are doing what they claim to do — namely, enabling compostable material, such as lettuce, coffee grinds, nut shells, yard clippings and leaves, to compost naturally.
Compostable trash bags are truly compostable. Animals Wild Cities This wild African cat has adapted to life in a big city. Animals This frog mysteriously re-evolved a full set of teeth.
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Subscriber Exclusive Content. Why are people so dang obsessed with Mars? How viruses shape our world. The era of greyhound racing in the U. Moreover, they would still be an eyesore and take up space at waste facilities for months or years. And when some of the plastic bags did seem to break down, such as the bags left to the open air, it was unclear if the disintegration was complete. Future studies, she said, should dig into the fate of those disintegrated plastic particles, to ascertain whether they truly break down and disappear — or become microplastics and harmful chemicals.
Biodegradable bags would be landfilled or, in some cases, recycled into new plastics — at least in theory. Meanwhile, the eco-conscious should hope their compostable bags end up in industrial composting facilities where high temperatures and favorable conditions for bacteria and other living things would break them down.
Compostable bags in chilly, oxygen-starved landfills can actually be preserved rather than destroyed. Plastic bags wash up as part of the litter on beaches around the world.
These are the real problems, Thompson said. Some simple solutions might help. Thompson suggested that standardized products, made of the same sets of materials, could streamline our waste management systems and allow much more of our waste to be profitably recycled.
Kalow, the polymer chemist, said there may yet be hope for new, improved biodegradable plastics if only we could discover that technology. Support Provided By: Learn more. Progress made by countries like Italy — where single-use bags for produce and baked goods must be compostable, and can be recycled as part of widespread food waste collections — shows that solutions to some of our plastic problems are there for the taking. The challenge is to get all of the pieces of the puzzle to slot into place.
Join one million Future fans by liking us on Facebook , or follow us on Twitter or Instagram. If you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc. Share using Email. By Kelly Oakes 5th November But could they help to fix our food waste problem?
The desert soil that could save lives The fight to bring a deadly illegal industry to justice Biodegradable plastics are one set of materials that are becoming a popular replacement as consumers demand green alternatives. The problem with labels To test how different kinds of plastic bag fare in different environments, Imogen Napper at the University of Plymouth collected carrier bags with various claims about biodegradability, and put them in three different natural environments over a period of three years: buried in soil, left in the sea, and hung up in the open air.
Bioplastics might not solve our marine plastic pollution problem, but they are well suited to tackling another big environmental problem: food waste. Cleaning up our act The biggest potential area of impact for compostable plastics is in food service.
There are some other applications suited to biodegradables, too. A load of compostables are going to end up incinerated, and a lot of plastics are going to end up in composting plants, it's just the way it is for the next two years or three years — David Newman.
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