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ARE YOU READY?
What’s Wrong With Degradable Bags?
Many Australians have been using ‘degradable’ bags which have been sold to retailers on the grounds that they are good for the environment. However, the Sydney Morning Herald on 17/1//2008 stated that “Coles Myer rejected the bags after it funded tests undertaken had degradable bags text at Swinburne University in 2005.”
They further stated that “the results showed the bags did not appear to degrade any faster than standard bags,” and that “researchers at Swinburne also raised concerns about heavy metals added to the EPI bags to help them disintegrate.”
The Herald also stated that the leaked tests suggest that the bags contain traces of the heavy metal cadmium.
When it comes to degradable bags, leading environmentalists have expressed significant concern. Ian Kiernan has been quoted saying that “The consumer takes home all these bags that they think are good for the environment when they’re not.”
The Herald also reported that some environmental groups have lodged complaints with the ACCC about what they claim to be misleading environmental claims that have been made on numerous ‘degradable’ bags that have been sold using the additives developed by the Canadian company EPI.
One of the other concerns held by environmentalists about ‘degradable’ bags is that if they do break down in the environment and end up in far smaller pieces of plastic, are we actually expanding the problem of plastic bags to smaller animals who previously couldn’t eat the traditional larger plastic bag?
The other concern is that because these bags contain heavy metal, what impact will this heavy metal have on wildlife should they ingest this type of plastic? This issue of eco-toxicity is of real concern to many people who have been campaigning on this issue.
As a result environmentalists are calling on the ban and phase-outs to apply to ‘degradable’ plastic bags as well as the traditional single-use polyetheylene plastic bags.
