It was bound to happen, right? A ban is mandated on various plastic items such as retail T-shirt bags, eating utensils, straws, cups, plates, and carry-out containers. But what if millions of retail bags, utensils, straws, cups, plates and carry-out containers are not available to meet consumer demand, especially in places like China and India?<\/p>\n
The answer is simple: Sell \u201cfake\u201d biodegradable retail bags, eating utensils, straws, cups, plates and carryout containers. An article in the New Indian Express by Shalnu Mohan, \u201cFake Biodegradable Carry Bags Flood Markets,\u201d reports that counterfeit biodegradable bags are \u201cflooding the market\u201d in Thiruvananthapuram, India, \u201cfollowing the ban imposed by the state government on single-use plastic.\u201d<\/p>\n
The ban, which took effect in the state of Kerala on Jan. 1, 2020, also stipulated a fine of Rs 50,000 ($700) for violating the ban. Gee, what\u2019s a store owner to do? Use fake biodegradable bags! So, on Jan. 27, \u201cthe state government issued yet another order clarifying [that] the products banned include branded and non-branded biodegradable carry bags,\u201d said the article.<\/p>\n
Obviously, the big problem is that \u201cfake\u201d biodegradable bags cannot be distinguished from the real thing. The state of Kerala\u2019s ban is quite extensive, as listed in the article: Plastic carry bags of any thickness; plastic sheets that act as tablecloths; plates, cups and decorative materials made of Styrofoam or Thermocol; single-use utensils of all types, including cups, plates, spoons, forks, straws and stirrers; non-woven bags; plastic flags; plastic bunting; plastic packets for packing fruits and vegetables; plastic drinking water pouches; plastic water bottles smaller than 500 ml; plastic-coated paper cups, plates, bowls and bags; plastic garbage bags including for hospital use and, yes, there\u2019s more.<\/p>\n
Changing Colors, Rising Costs: How To Reduce Thermoplastic Molding Scrap With The Right Purging AgentHigh numbers of defects due to material and color changes become expensive unless businesses are able to correct the problem. Processors are able to reduce the cost of rising scrap rates by following these purging tips.<\/p>\n
Since it\u2019s really tough to tell biodegradable bags from conventional plastic bags, government guidelines require that all biodegradable plastic products should have approval from the Central Pollution Control Board and carry the proper certification. The biodegradable materials \u201cshall bear the details of the company manufacturing the products and a QR code\u201d and \u201cmust display in writing \u2018this is a purely biodegradable plastic product,\u2019 and should dissolve in methylene dichloride, [which] must be mentioned on the packaging bag, cover or sheet material,\u201d explained the article.<\/p>\n
I could not find any information specific to methylene dichloride but did find dichloromethane, which is an organic compound widely used as a solvent in paint strippers and paint thinners. It has some health risks as, according to one website, its high volatility makes it an acute inhalation hazard. I\u2019m not sure why bioplastics used in the state of Kerala need to be dissolvable in this compound.<\/p>\n
None of this should surprise anyone. Promoting biodegradable products as eco-friendly, when they aren\u2019t really any better than conventional plastics that can be recycled, is just more \u201cgreenwashing.\u201d Biodegradability, after all, only happens when these products are left in the open environment, which isn\u2019t the best idea even if it only takes a year or so to fragment as opposed to hundreds of years for conventional polymers.<\/p>\n
A plastic product labeled \u201ccompostable\u201d may be compostable . . . if consumers can find a composting facility that will take the product. However, given there is generally no separate curbside collection for compostable products\u2014paper or plastic\u2014it\u2019s difficult to justify the production of anything claiming to be compostable. So, would you say that printing \u201ccompostable\u201d on a bag is \u201cfake\u201d or just misleading, given that you might not be able to find a composting facility willing to take the bags?<\/p>\n
Most solutions tend to cause more problems, as in the case of biodegradability. The makers of these bags\u2014and the companies that use them\u2014obviously believe they are promoting their \u201cgreen\u201d identity, when in reality there\u2019s not a whole lot of value in biodegradability given that the item must be left in the open environment in order for it to degrade over a period of several years.<\/p>\n
The problem with fake biodegradable bags is that if they happen to be real LDPE or LLDPE bags, they can be recycled. Printing \u201cbiodegradable\u201d on a plastic bag just to appear green is \u201cgreenwashing.\u201d And that does everyone\u2014including the plastics industry\u2014a disservice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It was bound to happen, right? A ban is mandated on various plastic items such as retail T-shirt bags, eating utensils, straws, cups, plates, and carry-out containers. But what if millions of retail bags, utensils, straws, cups, plates and carry-out containers are not available to meet consumer demand, especially in places like China and India? […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","nova_meta_subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[11270,7105,11966],"supplier":[],"class_list":["post-71887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-biodegradability","tag-packaging","tag-plastics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71887\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71887"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=71887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}