{"id":355,"date":"2010-03-15T19:10:22","date_gmt":"2010-03-15T23:10:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bulletinbag.mivamerchant.net\/blog\/?p=355"},"modified":"2025-05-29T13:05:49","modified_gmt":"2025-05-29T17:05:49","slug":"biodegradable-bags","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bulletinbag.com\/blog\/biodegradable-bags\/","title":{"rendered":"Thinking about Biodegradable Bags? Think Again."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/florida_bag_report.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-356\" alt=\"florida_bag_report\" src=\"\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/florida_bag_report.jpg\" width=\"226\" height=\"226\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bulletinbag.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/florida_bag_report.jpg 226w, https:\/\/www.bulletinbag.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/florida_bag_report-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 226px) 100vw, 226px\" \/><\/a>We recently stumbled upon an excellent resource in the battle to reduce single use plastic bag use\u2014a recently published report from the Florida DEP on retail bag use and ways to curb it. While its data is skewed towards the authoring state, it\u2019s chock-full of interesting and useful information to anyone\u2014worldwide\u2014contemplating a reusable bag program. Many of the interesting tidbits are things we at Bulletin Bag [.com] have covered in other blogs (<a title=\"Great Pacific Garbage Patch Blog\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bulletinbag.com\/blog\/reduce-wasteful-plastic.html\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener\">The Great Pacific Garbage Patch<\/a>, <a title=\"Living without plastic bags\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bulletinbag.com\/blog\/do-you-still-think-you-cannot-live-without-plastic-bags.html\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener\">getting by without plastic bags<\/a>, etc.), but we wanted to discuss one thing we haven\u2019t touched on in any of our other writings: biodegradable bags.<\/p>\n<p>While biodegradable and compostable bags aren\u2019t new to market, there has been a relatively new push towards their use as alternative to traditional plastic bags. Even though bags that don\u2019t persist in the environment sound like a positive step, there are serious drawbacks.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p class=\"jce_caption\">All types of biodegradable and compostable bags must be placed under specific conditions to degrade properly. For instance, a photo-degradable bag will not break down if it is covered by water or otherwise obscured from light. An oxo-biodegradable bag requires direct access to oxygen and sunlight to degrade.<\/p>\n<p>So what are the ramifications of improper use of biodegradable bags? Any consumer who places a biodegradable bag in the home compost pile will not see the promised degradation because the required high temperatures achieved in municipal composting facilities cannot be achieved with home composting. Additionally, some of these bags leave plastic pieces or other residues when they break down\u2014leftovers that natural systems and wildlife cannot tolerate.<\/p>\n<p>The unfortunate truth is that biodegradable bags are also inadvertently leading to litter because consumers assume the bags will quickly break down or compost, whatever the conditions, and that\u2019s just not true.<\/p>\n<p>Want to learn more? <a title=\"Florida DEP Retail Bag Report\" href=\"http:\/\/www.dep.state.fl.us\/waste\/quick_topics\/publications\/shw\/recycling\/retailbags\/Retail-Bag-Report_01Feb10.pdf\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener\">Read the full Florida DEP Retail Bag Report here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We recently stumbled upon an excellent resource in the battle to reduce single use plastic bag use\u2014a recently published report from the Florida DEP on retail bag use and ways to curb it. While its data is skewed towards the authoring state, it\u2019s chock-full of interesting and useful information to anyone\u2014worldwide\u2014contemplating a reusable bag program. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[205,27],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Thinking about Biodegradable Bags? Think Again. - Bulletin Bag<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bulletinbag.com\/blog\/biodegradable-bags\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Thinking about Biodegradable Bags? 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[&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.bulletinbag.com\/blog\/biodegradable-bags\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Bulletin Bag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-03-15T23:10:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-05-29T17:05:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Bulletin Bag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Bulletin Bag\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bulletinbag.com\/blog\/biodegradable-bags\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.bulletinbag.com\/blog\/biodegradable-bags\/\",\"name\":\"Thinking about Biodegradable Bags? 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[&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.bulletinbag.com\/blog\/biodegradable-bags\/","og_site_name":"Bulletin Bag","article_published_time":"2010-03-15T23:10:22+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-05-29T17:05:49+00:00","author":"Bulletin Bag","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Bulletin Bag","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.bulletinbag.com\/blog\/biodegradable-bags\/","url":"https:\/\/www.bulletinbag.com\/blog\/biodegradable-bags\/","name":"Thinking about Biodegradable Bags? 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