The black colour “garbage” plastic bags have become ubiquitous in all houses & offices. It is true, that its use is bad for the environment – plastic bags take anywhere between 20 to 1000 years to decay and they also prevent the organic materials like food waste inside them from getting recycled – but there is no denying that these bags are super convenient and a must, to keep our places clean and prevent infections.
Every time I see these black bags I feel guilty and think for next few minutes on alternatives, paper or cloth bags won’t work as they don’t retain water. Last week, it suddenly dawned on me – I am NOT a genius, I do miss the obvious on many occasions – that I should search for bio-degradable plastic bags on Amazon or Flipkart. I did that, found these green bags from Gujarat that’s available on Amazon India, ordered them. They cost ₹399 for a pack of 180 bags. On appearance, they look good, given it to my mother and waiting for her feedback.
The manufacturer in the listing, claims the bag will get decomposed in about 300 days when exposed to the sun – I suppose that’s much better than regular bags. There are claims and counter-claims too on this whole bio-degradable plastics. Most studies have focussed on western world’s conditions whereas, in India, plastics mostly end up entirely in landfills that are exposed to the sun.
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