<![CDATA[Biodegradable Plastic Bag Disappears in Four Months, Along With Your Earth-Killing Guilt - Gizmodo Comments]]> <![CDATA[Biodegradable Plastic Bag Disappears in Four Months, Along With Your Earth-Killing Guilt - Gizmodo Comments]]> <![CDATA[Biodegradable Plastic Bag Disappears in Four Months, Along With Your Earth-Killing Guilt]]> @Candyman: Buy a big knapsack, it's much better anyway.

Gary_7vn

]]> <![CDATA[Biodegradable Plastic Bag Disappears in Four Months, Along With Your Earth-Killing Guilt]]> @anudeglory: A good hemp bag, or even a good nylon knapsack will last 10 years, they may weigh a bit more, and yes they use energy to make, but seriously how many plastic bags of any type would a person use in 10 years? It's no contest in terms of green, not even close.

You are right about the c02, a non degradable bag will keep it locked up in the landfill for decades at least, long enough for us to wipe ourselves out and solve the problem that way.

Gary_7vn

]]> <![CDATA[Biodegradable Plastic Bag Disappears in Four Months, Along With Your Earth-Killing Guilt]]> What I don't understand is this; given that these bags biodegrade in ~4 months and presuming (knowing) that as a side effect of this process a certain large amount of C02 gas is released in to the atmosphere then what part of this does not contribute towards global warming and increasing your carbon footprint?

Using normal, non-bio-degradable bags, that only photo-degrade and so release C02 over ~10 years surely reduces the amount of your carbon footprint as it is no longer in the atmosphere - as readily - to have an effect on global warming! Of course, these bags have their own issues other than global warming, so you're screwed either way.

The same goes for paper and material bags as presumably the cost [not just monetary] of producing them, e.g. water, growth of plant material, recycling of old material C02, is nearly as high!

anudeglory

]]> <![CDATA[Biodegradable Plastic Bag Disappears in Four Months, Along With Your Earth-Killing Guilt]]> Polylactic acid is polyester derived from cornstarch that decomposes and mineralized into water and carbon dioxide when composted.

Yeah, sure, it's not like we have a CO2 problem or anything. They are also partly made from corn. Using corn for anything other than food is a crime.

Like so many of the perspicacious and wise here have said, use a freaking hemp bag!

When are these freaks going to learn? We don't need any more "disposable" plastics!

Gary_7vn

]]> <![CDATA[Biodegradable Plastic Bag Disappears in Four Months, Along With Your Earth-Killing Guilt]]> like these..

[www.harvardbooksellers.com]

telliott

]]> <![CDATA[Biodegradable Plastic Bag Disappears in Four Months, Along With Your Earth-Killing Guilt]]> Use cloth bags instead. They cost $1 to $2 each, are much much better for the environment than even this biodegradable option, and you can carry much more weight in them, putting more stuff into on bag. A lot of stores will even give you a nickle back everytime you use one so eventually you will break even.

telliott

]]> <![CDATA[Biodegradable Plastic Bag Disappears in Four Months, Along With Your Earth-Killing Guilt]]> My problem with plastic bag bans is that it may be well and good for those who are wealthy enough to drive, many people have to walk and/or use public transportation, and several paper bags are MUCH harder to manage than several plastic bags.

Not to mention how much more durable the plastic bags are; you're much more likely to have a paper bag break on you.

Candyman

]]> <![CDATA[Biodegradable Plastic Bag Disappears in Four Months, Along With Your Earth-Killing Guilt]]> @TheCapt:
Shouldn't that be MUST? :-)


Candyman

]]> <![CDATA[Biodegradable Plastic Bag Disappears in Four Months, Along With Your Earth-Killing Guilt]]> @Sebastianbf:
If you mean fully grown trees, probably none. If you mean year old saplings grown on a farm, lots.


Candyman

]]> <![CDATA[Biodegradable Plastic Bag Disappears in Four Months, Along With Your Earth-Killing Guilt]]> "breaks down in just 60 days-it's a possible candidate for water bottle plastics."
Yeah, that's going to be great when I buy a case of water at Costco for storage.

packetsniffer

]]> <![CDATA[Biodegradable Plastic Bag Disappears in Four Months, Along With Your Earth-Killing Guilt]]> I wonder what will happen when a person is stuck in the desert with a bottle made of this with water? Tough luck! ;)

Silver_Back

]]> <![CDATA[Biodegradable Plastic Bag Disappears in Four Months, Along With Your Earth-Killing Guilt]]> Hemp net bag and glass bottles with deposits. Not only are they eco friendly, they will clothe and employ Americans in the coming depression.

pashdown

]]> <![CDATA[Biodegradable Plastic Bag Disappears in Four Months, Along With Your Earth-Killing Guilt]]> There has been another biodegradable tecynology using unique formula of bacteria enzyme base substrate as against starch base as used by other manufacturers world over which is not as strong or durable as polymer (plastic) bags and has a cost addition of 300%-400%. Also starch based products can comprise of genetically modified crops (GM Crops).

This is the only Biodegradable technology in the world using bacteria enzyme base substrate which is 100% biodegradable within 6 months after disposal as per ASTM-D 5988-1996 and EN 13432:2000/ISO 14855 standards with the lowest cost addition of 15%-20%.

BIOPLAST biodegradable products are also compostable and hence enhancing the nutritive value of the remaining soil. All the ingredients of BIOPLAST biodegradable plastic products are food grade and non-toxic in nature therefore are suitable to have contact with food products.

BIOPLAST believes that this great innovation will go a long way in preserving the ecological balance around the world which has brought intelligent and affordable solution to the disposal of polyethylene plastic waste problem worldwide.

Find out more at www.bioplast.com.tr

Bioplast

]]> <![CDATA[Biodegradable Plastic Bag Disappears in Four Months, Along With Your Earth-Killing Guilt]]> But where does it go?

anfauglir

]]> <![CDATA[Biodegradable Plastic Bag Disappears in Four Months, Along With Your Earth-Killing Guilt]]> @shorty63136: But what I really wanna know is why Univ. of MO - Rolla (apparently now known as Missouri University of Science and Technology) decided it was a good idea to change their name after the Mizzou (Univ. of MO - Columbia) name change uproar?? I mean, I know Rolla is nothing but engineering for the most part, but still.

This was debated for awhile amongst the alumni (me included) because Rolla wanted to sound more prestigious, like MIT. The interesting thing is that I have seen mention of Rolla (MST) mentioned a few times recently, and I'm glad. It's a great school, but don't go there if all you want to do is party. Unless of course you go down for St. Pat's

TheCapt

]]> <![CDATA[Biodegradable Plastic Bag Disappears in Four Months, Along With Your Earth-Killing Guilt]]> doesnt seem practical at all...after they make it companies have 40 days to get them from the manufacturer(4-7days), send from headquaters to retail stores (5-10 days), use the bags already there, then use the new ones all in 40 days.

Remember all those days are mon-fri not including weekends.

from working at a grocery store back in the day, plastic bags are stocked to the max, having one that will disappear from inventory...not happening.

mricyfire

]]> <![CDATA[Biodegradable Plastic Bag Disappears in Four Months, Along With Your Earth-Killing Guilt]]> ha ha ha!

plasticorgy.jpg

ha ha ha.

EQC

]]> <![CDATA[Biodegradable Plastic Bag Disappears in Four Months, Along With Your Earth-Killing Guilt]]> @BasicBlack and @Moordryd: Ever heard of Bisphenol A?

berribrand

]]> <![CDATA[Biodegradable Plastic Bag Disappears in Four Months, Along With Your Earth-Killing Guilt]]> day 1: bag
day 25: bag
day 100: bag
day 121: Uh, WTF happened to my bag?




ryangee

]]> <![CDATA[Biodegradable Plastic Bag Disappears in Four Months, Along With Your Earth-Killing Guilt]]> @shorty63136:
That's ok, keep up the good work!


riqgeez

]]> <![CDATA[Biodegradable Plastic Bag Disappears in Four Months, Along With Your Earth-Killing Guilt]]> What about cities that ban plastic bags? Is there an exception?

deedrit

]]> <![CDATA[Biodegradable Plastic Bag Disappears in Four Months, Along With Your Earth-Killing Guilt]]> Great! Now I can use plastic vs a bullet to do all of my dirty work. I'll have a 2 month window to not get caught!

riqgeez

]]> <![CDATA[Biodegradable Plastic Bag Disappears in Four Months, Along With Your Earth-Killing Guilt]]> Good idea.

But what I really wanna know is why Univ. of MO - Rolla (apparently now known as Missouri University of Science and Technology) decided it was a good idea to change their name after the Mizzou (Univ. of MO - Columbia) name change uproar?? I mean, I know Rolla is nothing but engineering for the most part, but still.

I know - completely unrelated, but that's wack. Univ. of MO - St. Louis grad here, hence my bewilderment.

shorty63136

]]> <![CDATA[Biodegradable Plastic Bag Disappears in Four Months, Along With Your Earth-Killing Guilt]]> "Bring it on. Humans vs Trees. Should be a good fight."

We could watch it on Pay-per View. Hahaha. Nevermind.

Rabid Penguin

]]> <![CDATA[Biodegradable Plastic Bag Disappears in Four Months, Along With Your Earth-Killing Guilt]]> @Moordryd: We'll be ingesting the small molecular plastics as well as spreading that to ecosystems.

It's the large molecules that I'm afraid of.

BasicBlack

]]> <![CDATA[Biodegradable Plastic Bag Disappears in Four Months, Along With Your Earth-Killing Guilt]]> @Heman: That would be erroneous just as cutting all trees - there are many things that humans can do to help trees and the planet, but overconsumption and non-renewable energy are not among them.

liveinvt

]]> <![CDATA[Biodegradable Plastic Bag Disappears in Four Months, Along With Your Earth-Killing Guilt]]> They need to use this technology in making garbage bags since they tend to spend a lot of time sitting in landfills and can't be replaced with reusable cloth bags.

fallenturtle

]]> <![CDATA[Biodegradable Plastic Bag Disappears in Four Months, Along With Your Earth-Killing Guilt]]> @Heman:
Bring it on. Humans vs Trees. Should be a good fight.

Rabid Penguin

]]> <![CDATA[Biodegradable Plastic Bag Disappears in Four Months, Along With Your Earth-Killing Guilt]]> Just because it "bio-degrades" doesn't mean that it "disappears". We'll be ingesting the small molecular plastics as well as spreading that to ecosystems.

Just DON'T USE PLASTIC!

Moordryd

]]> <![CDATA[Biodegradable Plastic Bag Disappears in Four Months, Along With Your Earth-Killing Guilt]]> @Heman: That would be xenocide, I believe.

Hvedhrungr

]]> <![CDATA[Biodegradable Plastic Bag Disappears in Four Months, Along With Your Earth-Killing Guilt]]> Yes, but will they still smother small children? If they don't, it ain't progress.

BasicBlack

]]> <![CDATA[Biodegradable Plastic Bag Disappears in Four Months, Along With Your Earth-Killing Guilt]]> @SirNirian: Here is what the tree reply, genocide the human to save the planet.

Heman

]]> <![CDATA[Biodegradable Plastic Bag Disappears in Four Months, Along With Your Earth-Killing Guilt]]> @Sebastianbf:
Does that even matter? Chopping trees for paper is better than using oil for plastic any way you look at it. Trees are a renewable resource.

Rabid Penguin

]]> <![CDATA[Biodegradable Plastic Bag Disappears in Four Months, Along With Your Earth-Killing Guilt]]> @Sebastianbf: hemp FTW

liveinvt

]]> <![CDATA[Biodegradable Plastic Bag Disappears in Four Months, Along With Your Earth-Killing Guilt]]> Seriously guys, invest in some cloth or reusable grocery bags, do your part.

ILikeMacsWhatAboutIT

]]> <![CDATA[Biodegradable Plastic Bag Disappears in Four Months, Along With Your Earth-Killing Guilt]]> @liveinvt: but how many trees do you have to chop for bags?

Sebastianbf

]]> <![CDATA[Biodegradable Plastic Bag Disappears in Four Months, Along With Your Earth-Killing Guilt]]> There are two supermarkets in my town that uses biodegradable bags for about 2 months. One is a nationwide supermarket and the other one is a local store. (I live in Chile BTW)

Sebastianbf

]]> <![CDATA[Biodegradable Plastic Bag Disappears in Four Months, Along With Your Earth-Killing Guilt]]> Or you could get paper bags, and solve this all from the onset!

liveinvt

]]> <![CDATA[Biodegradable Plastic Bag Disappears in Four Months, Along With Your Earth-Killing Guilt]]> Haven't biodegradable plastic bags been around for years? Oh right they have, and they're still around. Because what people fail to figure out is that they only degrade under certain conditions. Conditions which usually do not contain "cover it in 6-11 inches of topsoil, then layer more trash over it."

Kind of like that biodegradable plastic cutlery made from potatoes. The only place in the US that uses the necessary technology to compost it is in Berkeley California.

Xavoc

]]> <![CDATA[Biodegradable Plastic Bag Disappears in Four Months, Along With Your Earth-Killing Guilt]]> one word: paper

SirNirian

]]> <![CDATA[Biodegradable Plastic Bag Disappears in Four Months, Along With Your Earth-Killing Guilt]]> Re: Seagulls
One word (well, I dunno, maybe it's tow words): Alka-Seltzer

Guy-Fawkes

]]> <![CDATA[Biodegradable Plastic Bag Disappears in Four Months, Along With Your Earth-Killing Guilt]]> @EQC: Fill it with dirt and use it to pot a new tree.

Brock

]]> <![CDATA[Biodegradable Plastic Bag Disappears in Four Months, Along With Your Earth-Killing Guilt]]> @EQC:
While a landfill may slow the biodegrading process due to covering the junk with dirt which prevents oxygen from speeding up the process, their purpose is not necessarily to slow that process. Landfills actually trap the "toxic stuff" also known as methane, and use it to produce electricity.

The problem with biodegradable plastics is that putting them in a landfill would slow the biodegrading process much more than if it weren't a plastic.

Rabid Penguin

]]> <![CDATA[Biodegradable Plastic Bag Disappears in Four Months, Along With Your Earth-Killing Guilt]]> While this does solve the problem of littered plastic bags sticking around forever in the street/forest/ocean...it doesn't really stop the filling up of landfills. Landfills are designed to slow/prevent biodegradation so that toxic stuff doesn't leech out.

In other words: if you've got a biodegradable bag, just toss it out the window if you want to really be green. Sending it to the landfill is just plain wrong.

EQC

]]> <![CDATA[Biodegradable Plastic Bag Disappears in Four Months, Along With Your Earth-Killing Guilt]]> Very cool tech! Though you go through all this process to make it using oil and starches and delivering it to stores etc for the few minutes of use so we take crap home and then it magicaly dissapears... I could see this for keeping things fresh - not to maintain our sorry ass lazy lifestyle.

zarchitect

]]> <![CDATA[Biodegradable Plastic Bag Disappears in Four Months, Along With Your Earth-Killing Guilt]]> diapers r half biodegradable

Arsenal6

]]> <![CDATA[Biodegradable Plastic Bag Disappears in Four Months, Along With Your Earth-Killing Guilt]]> Grocery store forgets to use the older stock of bags, only to open the box and find NOTHING THERE! Call my agent, that's a great idea for a horror movie.

iridius

]]> <![CDATA[Biodegradable Plastic Bag Disappears in Four Months, Along With Your Earth-Killing Guilt]]> Wow, this is amazing! We need to see more research like this, and hopefully high adoption rates!

Glamdering

]]> <![CDATA[Biodegradable Plastic Bag Disappears in Four Months, Along With Your Earth-Killing Guilt]]> it's about time. maybe they can use some of this in other things as well - dipers for one.

froggy

]]> <![CDATA[Biodegradable Plastic Bag Disappears in Four Months, Along With Your Earth-Killing Guilt]]> It will still take just a few minutes to choke the shit out of a sea turtle. Pure pwnage.

Kaiser-Machead's Chips Ahoy!

]]> <![CDATA[Biodegradable Plastic Bag Disappears in Four Months, Along With Your Earth-Killing Guilt]]> And as the plastic bottle is breaking down over 60 days, naturally none of its added biodiesel waste products or polylactic acids are leaching into the drinking water it contains, right? Pass.

bosskev

]]> <![CDATA[Biodegradable Plastic Bag Disappears in Four Months, Along With Your Earth-Killing Guilt]]> With my luck, my grocery bags would expire as I'm carrying my eggs in the house.

JBKing

]]> <![CDATA[Biodegradable Plastic Bag Disappears in Four Months, Along With Your Earth-Killing Guilt]]> Awesome!

Late_Night

]]>