Notes On Compostable Plastic Bags

Some supermarkets are offering compostable plastic bags as an alternative to traditional plastic bags. But what do you need to know about them?

Theoretically, plastic bags labeled "compostable" are made from vegetable matter, such as potatoes or cornstarch, that decomposes completely. However, the conditions must be suitable for them to decompose and are usually not hot enough in the case of home composting. It may require centralized industrial composting facilities where industrial composting can reach high temperatures.

If a bag is marked as "home compostable" and has been approved as compostable by the EU Composting Association, it should carry the seedling logo Seedling or OK COMPOST.

Some retailers are heralding the use of compostable packaging bags as a solution to the landfill problem.

However, skeptics believe that the most compostable bags will be placed in the normal waste disposed of in the landfill, and as a result, like any other organic matter in the landfill, it will degrade and it will emit methane.

And, if a compostable pouch is placed in a recycling stream, it can contaminate all other materials, meaning that the entire batch cannot be recycled.

The key to the use of compost bags is that it promotes recycling rather than reducing the amount of waste generated in the first place. Reducing and reusing is always better than recycling.

"It's great to see that big companies are looking for ways to reduce plastic in their stores," Friends of the Earth said. However, compostable bio-based bags aren't necessarily the best solution for them to emerge first. This is a case of exchanging one type of simple plastic for another, when in fact no packaging at all would be the best option. "

"Compostable coffee cups take years to decompose, while food and garden waste takes only six weeks to do in an old-fashioned composting facility.

The only thing you can put in your food and garden bins (other than food and garden waste) is a compostable food bag with a EN13432 seedling logo for lining up your kitchen food. The bags are made with potato starch and therefore decompose at the same rate as food and garden waste.