Biodegradable bags

 In Slovenia, about 300-600 million bags are used annually, or 150-300 plastic bags per person, and according to calculations, about 900 bags are discarded every minute. This consumes 8 million liters of fossil fuels, which is absurd mainly because these bags are only used for an average of 20 minutes and then discarded.

They have flooded the whole world, not just Slovenia, mainly because of their practicality and price advantage. A certain proportion of these bags are recycled, and many still end up in landfills and in nature. As many as four of the five shopping bags are made of polyethylene, and plastic materials need 100-1000 years to decompose. However, plastic bags never really break down in nature, but break down into small pieces to which chemicals and toxins bind. With them, we simplify our daily lives and save in the short term, but we rarely think that at the same time we are heavily polluting the environment in which we live and nature, which will sooner or later charge us.

The ecological problems we cause with bags are insufficiently exposed in public and therefore we are often not even aware of them. Rarely does anyone know that thousands of marine animals die every year precisely because of plastic bags, which we carelessly throw away somewhere in nature? These animals replace food bags, eat them, clog their digestive system and die as a result. When the animal disintegrates, the bag comes back into the sea and threatens other animals. Thus, terrestrial animals are also endangered. Namely, plastic bags do not decompose biologically, they undergo light decomposition through which they decompose into smaller and smaller toxic parts that pollute the soil and watercourses. Many cities around the world have problems with clogging drains and sewage systems, leading to an increased chance of flooding and disease outbreaks.

As a solution, they emerged. bio bags. Given that these bags are something relatively new and still not every day, we usually find only a positive response about them in the media, they are presented with superlatives as an "innovation of the future". They emphasize that they are made from corn or potato starch, which is why they can be disposed of in a bio-waste container or in a composter, where they are then decomposed and do not burden the environment. Such bags are therefore environmentally friendly, and at the same time versatile for households (bags for bio-waste, composting) and retail (shopping bags) as well as for agriculture and production.

However, no product is completely ecologically indisputable. Even bioplastics, despite their degradability, are not a perfect solution, as they need raw materials - we have to grow potatoes or corn for them, which does not make sense given the general situation in the world, where about a billion people are starving. Similar to biofuels, we have to allocate a lot of agricultural land for them, where we could otherwise grow food, which reduces the arable land for food production, which also leads to food irritation. The production and distribution of each product require energy and material, with bio-bags being no exception - we also need energy for processing and transport, and composting is not free.

This, therefore, biodegradable plastic does not differ significantly from normal, but it does not leave long-lasting traces in nature, as it decomposes into compost, which is fundamental for the growth of new plants, thus completing the natural cycle.

In all of this, we need to pay particular attention to the goal of what we want to achieve with them. If biodegradable bags become merely a substitute for the existing polyethylene ones, this will not reduce consumption, but will only redirect it. So more lasting solutions are needed.

Campaigns to ban or reduce the use of bags have emerged around the world. At the end of 2010, SD and Zares deputies also proposed new law on the restriction of use and submitted the bill to the legislative procedure before Christmas. With this law, they want to burden the sellers financially and make plastic shopping bags the exception rather than the rule.

This legal solution is not the best either. According to some, a letter to all trading companies stating that the trader is obliged to ask the customer if he needs a bag and to remove disposable separation bags from the cash registers and offer them only when necessary is quite sufficient. The seemingly so complex question, therefore, has a very simple answer. And the bearer of this is again the individual. Before each subsequent purchase, think about the bags first. It is best to have your own bag with you, preferably made of fabric or canvas, but you can also have a basket. At home in the drawer, the bag will definitely not help us, and even less in the trash. If we take this into account, we will be able to offer the same answer to the cashier at the checkout every time - "No, thank you!".