Why We Need to Move From Plastic Grocery Bags to Compostable Grocery Bags?

Why Do We Need to Move From Plastic Grocery Bags to Compostable Grocery Bags?

Right from your personal to grocery and other everyday needs, plastic grocery bags come in handy. In fact, the world today is almost unimaginable without the use of plastic. But obviously, there’s a downside to almost everything that is available easily and the plastic grocery bags are no exception to this. While from the point of view of cost effectiveness, convenience and energy efficiency, plastic is the material of choice, one cannot really deny the hazardous effects it has on the environment.

Hence there is an immense need to move beyond the use of plastic grocery bags and embark on a journey of finding and using more healthy alternatives that are not at all detrimental to the planet.

Why Are Plastic grocery bags Harmful?

Before plunging headlong into a discussion on how to move beyond the plastic grocery bags, it is important to know why to move beyond them in the first place?

First of all, polythene bags are non-biodegradable which means they cannot be recycled. It will not be able to decompose and will probably take thousands of years to disintegrate and that again, into micro-plastics. Such an exhausting process will keep contaminating the soil and water in the process. Again, through marine life, it makes its way up to human beings through the food chain and has a negative impact on all our lives. Even while some bags claim themselves to be ‘biodegradable,’ this is hardly the norm. It will either end up in litters or landfills which are the worst possible and most dreadful outcomes, keeping in mind the health of the environment.

Again, it is difficult to get rid of plastic grocery bags. Burning them can give off noxious chemicals such as dioxins. Again, each of them requires a different process of recycling which is both costly and time-consuming.

Plastic grocery bags can choke or poison fish, birds and animals. A large number of birds die every year due to plastic ingestion or entanglement in plastic. Again, it has certain harmful chemicals that can be carcinogenic and promote endocrine disruption.

Again, plastic grocery bags can travel long distances by water and wind, causing landscape littering quite easily. Again, some of the chemicals used in plastic production can cause dermatitis by coming in contact with human skin.

Also, plastic grocery bags are made from non-renewable resources and the extraction and production of petroleum and natural gas create greenhouse gases which contribute to the global climate change which is one of the greatest environmental concerns today.

Plastic grocery bags are again mistaken as food by animals, birds and marine life.

Almost 1,00,000 animals killed by the plastic every year. For hungry, seas turtles, it is almost impossible to distinguish the plastic grocery bags from the jelly fish. Fish eats thousands of tons of plastic a year and it transfers up the food chain to big fish and marine mammals. Bird often mistake the shredded plastic grocery bags for food and feed on them which fills their stomach with toxic debris.

Plastic grocery bags are costly and a free plastic bag isn’t really “free.� Plastic grocery bags start out as fossil fuels and end up as deadly waste in the landfills and the oceans. The fossil fuels used in the production of the plastic grocery bags end up into creating a large carbon footprint in the environment. The quality of the plastic makes it almost impossible for the nature to decompose it and it stayed in the environment for forever.

Again, most recycling facilities are not capable of recycling plastic grocery bags and so they do not even accept to recycle these. As a result, the actual plastic bag recycling rate is just 5% and the rest of the plastic waste finds its way into the landfills or in the waterways.

How Are Compostable grocery bags Any Better than Plastic grocery bags?

A person having concerns about eco-health will surely take an eco-minded approach in this situation. One of the best ways to combat the use of plastic grocery bags is to replace them with compostable grocery bags.

Compostable grocery bags meet an industry standard that is approved by the government. They have compostable materials that can compost naturally and thus they are regulated. They will turn into compost over time and can help reduce the emission of greenhouse gases.

It can also help soil absorb carbon and breathes new life into the environment, thereby preventing soil contamination. The production of compostable grocery bags requires less energy and water and release less harmful pollution than the nonbiodegradable plastic products. The bio-based plastic uses only 40% of the water as compared to the water use in the production of the non-biodegradable products.

Again, compostable grocery bags have a legitimate means of disposal, unlike plastic grocery bags. It’s called the compost facility. It is easy to locate.

Other Benefits Include:

• • • • •

Easily compostable Certified to be compostable Made from renewable plant resources Breaks down well with moisture Fits into standard-size trash cans

Thus, compostable grocery bags are made from vegetable matter like potato, maize, sugar cane, vegetable dues, corn starch, and various other products which can fully break down naturally.

However, there are some studies which still maintain that compostable grocery bags do not really compost easily and they might not decompose fully. So, the truth is that it actually depends on the material that has gone into its making as different

materials react differently even when placed in the same environment. The biodegradable plastic grocery bags or compostable grocery bags survive for a very less amount of time in soil and sea, unlike the non-biodegradable plastic waste. The compostable plastic products get disappeared after a few months in the marine environment and do not harm nature.

Compostable grocery bags are not harmful unlike the plastic ones and they won’t turn into teeny-tiny bits of plastic or micro-plastics in the ocean which is by far, its major advantage. Again, they are durable and can be used many a time over the course of their useful life span. The compostable grocery bags shoed the strong signs of deterioration in different natural environments. Thus, the only way to be ecofriendly is to create compostable and biodegradable bags.

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