On: Canada Plans to Ban Single-Use Plastics, Joining Growing Global Movement

[rb808]

I need bags for a bunch of things and now have to buy plastic bags online. I'd like to buy biodegradable ones, does anyone have any recommendations how to check for bags really will degrade?

[fooblitzky → rb808]

You can look for logos showing the product is certified to compost in different environments, e.g.:

BPI: https://bpiworld.org/BPI-Public/Program.html OK Compost: http://www.tuv-at.be/home/

There are others.

Note that for most it still requires industrial composting to really decompose, and a bio-plastic bag in the ocean will be just as bad as a regular one.

[bacon_waffle → fooblitzky]

> a bio-plastic bag in the ocean will be just as bad as a regular one.

Curious if you could provide justification for this; do you mean that an animal could just as easily choke on a bio plastic bag as a petro plastic one?

My non-biologist assumption had been that compostable plastic would just take longer to compost without the heat and high activity in a commercial situation. IOW, I think that we need to assume some fraction of manufactured stuff will always end up in the ocean, so it's better that is made from bio- than petro- materials.

[_mhyx → rb808]

Waxed paper bags