Eco Alternatives: Compostable Corn Starch Bags

By Avanti Vadivelu

Al Gore made it a trend.  Kermit the Frog admits it’s not always easy.  And at one point or another, almost all of us have made the vow to do it.  We’re talking about “going green”: the duty of taking responsibility of our earth’s future by making small changes to our everyday, routine behavior.  We’ve heard it before… “every little bit can help”.  So, we turn off the water faucets while brushing our teeth.  We replace our light bulbs with energy efficient lighting.  We finally put a recycle bin next to our trash cans.  But there’s always more we can do, and it doesn’t have to be that difficult.

Here’s an idea to help you take one more step towards going green… compostable corn starch bags.  An estimated 380 billion plastic bags are used in the United States each year, each one promising to take tens of thousands of years to break down in landfills or in the trash many cities send out to sea.  During that time it has the potential to leak its petrochemical plastics and leech chemicals into our precious ground water, strangle those animals who are unfortunate enough to get tangled up in the plastic, put a choke-hold on plant roots beneath the soil, smother small plants above ground, and can even trick animals into believing that the plastic bags are food, which also leads to painful deaths. For example, environmentalists have pointed out that turtles often mistake plastic bags for jellyfish and swallow them. According to www.algalita.org, it is estimated 100,000 marine mammals die each year because of plastic litter in our ocean in the North Pacific.  The BBC reports that sea mammals aren’t the only victims.  In India, for instance, cows are mistakenly ingesting plastic bags on the streets and end up choking or starving to death, since the plastic cannot be digested (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1974750.stm).

On the outside, they look the same as regular, clear plastic bags.  However, these biodegradable plastics are as environmentally friendly as they are functional.  Instead of wasting space in landfills, these plastic bags can easily be thrown into a compost where it can serve a second purpose of contributing to the circle of life. 

Some critics may argue that many people may not know the difference between a compostable corn starch bag and a regular old plastic bag, thereby throwing the eco-friendly bag into the trash where it ends up in a landfill anyway.  But chemistry teaches us that even if the corn starch bags do end up in landfills and aren’t able to break down completely, the components of the bags are much more natural and won’t harm the environment as much as regular plastic bags would.

The utility of corn starch bags are especially important for vendors who want to contribute to the convenience of distributing bags to customers with purchases.  As for customers who are truly committed to going green?  Carrying along your own reusable shopping bag(s) is a better alternative.  Even better?  Write your local congressman about the importance of banning plastic bags from grocery stores, following San Francisco’s brave lead.

Although currently much more readily available in the United Kingdom, U.S. shoppers can order corn starch bags online at www.amazon.com, www.greenfeet.com or at www.greenearthofficesupply.stores.yahoo.net.  “BioBag” is a particularly popular brand for corn starch bags and come in large trash can sizes as well as doggie waste bag sizes.