Any plastic is not 100% degradable quick enough. Research I've read about surprised researchers because not one commercially available, biodegradable plastic broke down in a year of accelerated exposure to conditions you'd expect to degrade it if it b really was as advertised. All samples of biodegradable plastic bags were strong enough to carry a bag full of shopping.
It was mentioned that poop changes the soil ecosystem. Well a biodegradable bag that's not significantly better than non biodegradable ones will change the soil and water surely worse than dog poop.
In case anyone is still confused about what I'm saying. I do n not say bag it then throw that away. Jeez that's the worst possible option. You have the poop problem and the plastic problem. I am not talking about high use public areas being left with poop left without picking it up. I'm not talking urban, parks, towpaths or similar. I'm talking about in the countryside where the chances of actually walking in the poop is next to none. Afterall you're not going to walk through undergrowth of brambles, bracken up to your armpits, etc. Although the bracken once after I have been coming down from the fells after being locationally misplaced.
The point being biodegradable bags are still plastic. They're often starchy plant based then that is basically converted by chemical processes into polymer chains that are virtually similar to petroleum based polymer chains. They do have a slight difference in structure I'm believe which allows for faster degradation. It is not the answer just a partial option to assuage plastic guilt. It's a marketing success. I wish I knew where I read about that report. I seem to remember it was carried out on behalf of an environmental department of an international body like European commission or the UN in seem to recall. Or perhaps American EPA or other national equivalent. I've spent a long time researching it at work. We had a product forced on us as an alternative to conventional plastics that isn't quite as advertised. BTW that product is no longer supplied we now use a glass based mesh carrier that remains in place instead of a starch derived, plastic based mesh carrier. A better option was developed. Just like we should do with plastic products of all kinds when we can.
I remember years ago the insulation sector was moving away from refractory ceramic fibres due to IARC classifications that had RCFs as probable carcinogen, one level below asbestos. The ceramic fibre producers tweaked the composition to create ceramic fibres that were biosoluble. However what is happening is the fibres are basically dissolving in body fluids within a certain timescale. What happens then? You wee it out which means it's basically gone through your kidneys on its journey. Needless to say it's not used as often as the original RCFs used to be. In fact we use it so infrequently that it's not was easy to get hold of.
I think biodegradable plastic is still plastic but they're getting away with it by saying it goes into the environment and will break down
eventually. The key word is eventually. What harm before it degrades?
My point is this seems like a temporary, stop gap solution when we should be simply cutting it out. We no longer use asbestos except for a very few uses. I think we should do that with all plastics.
adiosplastic.co.uk
