It's about time - 100% compostable, plant based disposable 'plastic' bags, cups, plates and spoon

I saw these ads pop up on ATS today and I got excited..



(..and no I don't work for the company.)

They look like regular plastic bags and cups, etc., but they are actually made from plant material.

I'll be honest. I don't have the discipline to carry several shopping bags to the supermarket every time I go shopping, so I always come home with tons of plastic shopping bags. I also live in an apartment building and don't have facilities to compost so I just throw food scraps (vegetable peels or whatever) into these non bio-degradable shopping bags and throw them out in the trash (thinking, I should at least make use of them).

Anyway, I always wondered what would be the result of all this non-degradable plastic in waste dumps with billions of people throwing them out everyday.

When I was in India, in a sort of rural area, I saw the coolest thing, which was food plates made of pressed leaves, and many of the food vendors would sell their food on these plates. Some of these plates did not make the garbage but it was no big deal. The plates just blended in with the other leaves scattered about on the floor. Nobody views leaves on the floor as trash. That's because they work with our natural system.

Imagine a waste dump that would simply turn into fertile soil.

Anyway with these products - if supermarkets and other vendors would implement them, I wouldn't have to feel so guilty about carrying loads of groceries back home.

a reply to: nOraKat

Thank you for this! I watched that documentary last night about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and I got a shock. I also woke up this morning thinking heavily on it. I know I am going to cut my plastic usage down now but... chocolate? All those Hersey wrappers lol its so not funny tho!

Again thank you for posting this!

a reply to: Dae

Imagine if everyone used these plastics made of plant based fibers. No garbage patch (well less garbage patch).. maybe it wouldn't work for soda bottles.. but for everything else.. what a difference it would make.

a reply to: nOraKat

I saw this yesterday too! Plastic made from Shrimp! Its a new idea on using the waste from shrimp shells,

"...researchers at Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering have developed a new type of fully biodegradable bioplastic that is made from chitosan, a material extracted from shrimp shells. Chitosan, a form of chitin, is a long-chain polysaccharide responsible for the hard shells of shrimps and other crustaceans."

Well people we have done "our" part, now its up to the rich bastards who own these plastic corporations to get on to this!

(Picture: Dead Laysan Albatross chick remains containing ingested flotsam)
en.wikipedia.org...

Now that's a good diet of mmm.. mm.. plastic.

Yum.

i dont see the big deal here.

Who cares whats what made from its about responsible waste management and recycling, make then out of metal as long as you recirc it who the # cares?

Could make it out of golden panda # for all i care as long as it gets recycled.

a reply to: Dae

McDonald's and big chain supermarkets can use it as a marketing gimmick.

Maybe there's something in it for everyone.

I would think with the re-introduction of hemp and it gaining speed we will be seeing more friendly products .One can only hope ,because the plastic stuff is just toxic ....peace

a reply to: Biigs



Responsible?

a reply to: nOraKat



I dont recycle everything except for plastic (from bags to bottles) because its literally poisoning almost every aspect of our environment not to mention its gender-bending chemicals.

With a half life of 50,000 years, its never going anywhere.

I really wish people would stop using plastic to then force the producers to discontinue or change its production.

a reply to: nOraKat

For me the exciting thing is not having all the contact with actual plastics which leach into the body. Xeno-estrogens leaching from the plastics into our bodies is no good.

originally posted by: Dae

Well people we have done "our" part, now its up to the rich bastards who own these plastic corporations to get on to this!

I think this is a very simplistic way of looking at the problem. I highly doubt the manufacturers who use plastics in their goods could care less whether it's made from oil, plants or shrimp. What they do care about is whether or not these new plastics can be manufactured for the same or cheaper price than oil-based plastics. "Our part" will involve being prepared to pay more for goods if these materials are more expensive, and if consumer choice history is anything to go by, we won't.

originally posted by: nOraKat
I'll be honest. I don't have the discipline to carry several shopping bags to the supermarket every time I go shopping, so I always come home with tons of plastic shopping bags. I also live in an apartment building and don't have facilities to compost so I just throw food scraps (vegetable peels or whatever) into these non bio-degradable shopping bags and throw them out in the trash (thinking, I should at least make use of them).

I saved up a lot of those plastic bags before I got re-usable bags, but I do have a garden where I can compost peels etc so I have very little to put in them, sometimes just other bags like a plastic bread bag. But now I usually have the discipline to take the re-usable bags with me.

Imagine a waste dump that would simply turn into fertile soil.

Anyway with these products - if supermarkets and other vendors would implement them, I wouldn't have to feel so guilty about carrying loads of groceries back home.

For the present, you still have to feel guilty even if you use these bags and just throw them out. The only way you're off the hook is if you compost them yourself, or specifically give your used bags to a composter (and who would that be?) because they are not going to compost in a typical landfill. Newspapers come from natural sources (trees) and are biodegradable and compostable, but they might last about as long as plastic grocery bags in a landfill, and biodegradable versions of plastic bags might last about as long as the real plastic bags.

Do Biodegradable Items Really Break Down in Landfills? Most Landfills Too Tightly Packed to Work Well

Landfills Too Tightly Packed for Most Trash to Biodegrade
Most landfills are fundamentally anaerobic because they are compacted so tightly, and thus do not let much air in. As such, any biodegradation that does take place does so very slowly.

“Typically in landfills, there’s not much dirt, very little oxygen, and few if any microorganisms,” says green consumer advocate and author Debra Lynn Dadd. She cites a landfill study conducted by University of Arizona researchers that uncovered still-recognizable 25-year-old hot dogs, corncobs and grapes in landfills, as well as 50-year-old newspapers that were still readable.

So, if you want to feel less guilty, really the best bet is to develop some discipline and take the re-usable shopping bags with you. My grocery store sells them, and I got mine on Earth Day when they were on sale for 50% off.

I still end up with some plastic bags though if they sell leaky packages in their produce department, since I don't want those leaking whatever into my re-usable shopping bags, but the store I shop at is very good about this and will sometimes even ask me if I think I need an extra plastic bag or not, which I usually know because I check the produce item for leaks when I pick it up. The few plastic bags I get can be re-used as trash bags.

Really the best bet is to avoid using disposable items as much as possible. I'll give you one simple example. We have styrofoam coffee cups next to the coffee machine at work. I don't use them, and instead use my own ceramic coffee cup. I try to encourage my co-workers to do the same. This type of action is much more effective at reducing waste streams than switching from styrofoam cups to biodegradable disposable cups.

a reply to: nOraKat

It's actually quite funny - I remember when plastic first hit the consumer market in my area. The biggest selling points were that the dishes didn't break and would last forever. ...So now they're pitching dishes that decompose quickly.

lol


F&S

Something that I absolutely HATE are those f*****g packing peanuts. They are the devil's own spawn. A few years back one company I buy from started using packing peanuts made from starch. Pour water on them and they dissolve into nothing and are completely compostable. But I haven't seen them widely adopted. A shame.

I watch that show Shark Tank and last Friday they had a pair of entrepreneurs who wanted an investment for their party supply company featuring 100% organic & compostable materials. They didn't mention much about the tech, as it wasn't proprietary, but they said the dishes were primarily comprised of tapioca starch and the cutlery was made of bamboo. No one made a deal with one "shark" saying she was already invested it what would most likely be considered a competitor. Most were, of course, concerned with the price difference; concerned that the public's desire to be environmentally friendly would not outweigh the disparity.

This sounds good. These things should not be more expensive than regular plastic though. Plastic containers should really be taxed and the money used to pay the cost of recycling these. A tenth of a penny for a plastic bag or styrofoam container should be implemented if it does not rot. This money should be used to pay for employees to separate garbage to recycle.

I suppose that the money would just be spent by the government on non related pork barrel projects though. Our government is good at twisting things around and feeding the money to the wealthy contractors.

originally posted by: Biigs
i dont see the big deal here.

Who cares whats what made from its about responsible waste management and recycling, make then out of metal as long as you recirc it who the # cares?

Could make it out of golden panda # for all i care as long as it gets recycled.

Recycling most materials is very polluting and energy intensive.
listverse.com...

Hey, well THAT's a constructive use of Monsanto GMO corn! Love the idea and hope it's just the beginning.

I tend to recycle plastic bags, keeping a bunch in my car for use at the grocery store. Stores readily let me use them and refund me a couple of pennies for each one I use.

Corn eh? Not bad but hemp plastic makes more sense and requires less than corn as far as fertilizer, pesticides and optimum soil. Perhaps in the future as hemp laws are relaxed we will see the implementation. Here in Oregon we banned plastic shopping bags a couple of years ago.

I just wonder how the petroleum industry will react to this, for plastic containers may be a significant part of their product sales. Either way, this is a good step in the right direction and should have been done years ago!

I just hope these new containers are quieter than those chip bags everyone was griping about.