'Biodegradable' plastic shopping bags still able to function after three years: researchers
File photo: A shopper leaves a grocery store carrying his groceries in plastic bags Tuesday, August 30, 2016 in Brossard, Que. Researchers from the University of Plymouth in the U.K. found that plastic bags touted as ‘biodegradable’ and ‘compostable’Research Fellow Imogen Napper and Professor Richard Thompson studied the decomposition of five plastic bag materials that are common to the U.K., in air, soil and sea environments - places that would be affected if the bags became litter.
Dr. Mohini Sain, professor at the University of Toronto and Director of the Centre for Biocomposites and Biomaterials Processing, told CTV News in an email that there is “no clear definition of biodegradability” in Canada, and that if products claim to be biodegradable then they should “specify the time period to complete biodegradation.”
Sain said that in the past, companies in Canada used pure PLA to make plastic bags that would have been biodegradable in a composting medium – but that he was unsure if the practice was ongoing.
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