BIODEGRADABLE BAGS? A FALSE SOLUTION

Biodegradable plastic bag after 3 years at sea

Lately, markets and supermarkets are often offering, giving or selling bags labeled “biodegradable,” “compostable,” or “green.”

Well, we think, how comfortable: as the bags are “bio” origin and degradable, I can use as many bags as I want, because they will not pollute or damage the environment.

So, I put a couple of carrots in a bag; one onion in another; four apples in another one… and when I get home, I can throw this pile of bioplastic bags without remorse.

No remorse?

Well, open your eyes, because we’ve been cheated again.

Currently, disposable bags are not harmless.

In other words: disposable bags always, to a greater or lesser degree, “pollute”, tarnish and harm the environment, the natural world and, by extension, human beings, even though these bags are labeled as “biodegradable” or “compostable”.

Why are these bags called “bio” harmful to the environment?

Firstly, Because the majority of the “compostable” or “biodegradable” bags still contain a high percentage of plastic (read the small print on the bag), and therefore are not really “clean” products.

Secondly, because in reality the bag only degrades properly in industrial conditions at a certain temperature and humidity that do not occur in a natural environment.

Therefore, if the “bio” bag ends up in the sea, it does decompose, but in tiny pieces, and it ends up generating microplastics.

Third, because nowadays all the large-scale industrial production (also producing billions of bags) is going to require huge amounts of energy resources.

In fact, not even disposable paper bags are “green” because producing such wood has required cutting down natural forests and promoting large-scale industrial tree plantations.

The best bag we can use

Let us not be fooled again: for now, the best bag on the market, the most ecological, the most environmentally friendly, is the reusable bag.

The reusable bag may require a small planning effort (it is necessary to take it when we leave our home), but it is small if we compare it with the satisfaction of being sure that we are working, collaborating, helping to preserve and care for the environment.