A little story about biodegradable bags in Russia

This is not the first year in the world that the problem of plastic pollution of the environment and the oceans has been discussed. In European countries (and some others) biodegradable plastic has long been used. And now in many areas there is a rejection of plastic in general (for example, paper tubes and the like are used in fast foods, the news from 2018 can be read here on the hub ). Also, for example, from May 1 of this year, Sweden introduced a new (rather high) tax on plastic bags. Now, a regular retail T-shirt for groceries costs 6-6.5 SEK, which is approximately 45 rubles at the current exchange rate.

In Russia, biodegradable packages everywhere began to appear about 6-8 years ago. In 2014, I decided to conduct my own experiment and find out how biodegradation actually occurs and how much the timeframes declared by manufacturers correspond to reality.

Immediately I will make a couple of reservations. The article, of course, does not pretend to be scientific, just the observations of a layman. And one more thing - I could not finish my experiment due to the lack of physical access to the place of the experiment at the moment. But at the same time, I believe that there was enough time for the experiment.



So, I began my experiment in the spring of 2014 by digging in my summerhouse two biodegradable packages - one from the Crossroads, the other from the Alphabet of Taste.

The crossroads directly in their stores talked about the benefits of using biodegradable bags and indicated the dates for which they decompose (photo taken April 28, 2014):



This is how the place where I placed the bags looked. Oxygen, earth, sun almost all day, water - all in abundance. We start from the Crossroads (photo dated April 24, 2014):



Add the Alphabet of Taste (June 13, 2014):



Add a package from the Republic. It says that it decomposes in 2.5 years, but if you ever held this package in your hands, then it is very difficult to believe in the stated time, this package is made of very dense plastic. Check it out. You can also assess the state of our last year's packages, they look already battered, but intact (May 2, 2015):



Check the status. As you can see, holes appeared in the package from the Crossroads, pieces began to fall off from the ABC of taste (September 21, 2015):







Verification on July 9, 2016. No significant changes:





2017 was missed in my experiment. Next are the latest photos taken on June 24, 2018. This can be considered the end date of my experiment. That is, for two t-shirt packages 4 years have passed, for a package from the Republic - 3 years. We look at the result:







As you can see, although some changes have occurred with T-shirt packages, I think that they are insignificant. The package from the Republic only faded in the sun, but did not lose its properties. You can take it and go shopping. You can draw other conclusions yourself.

PS

If I manage to take photos this year, then I will add them with an update to the post.