When it comes to things like food packaging, plant fiber bags are a biodgradable alternative to traditional plastic bags.

Plastic is one of the least environmentally friendly things around. It takes oil to produce which means possibly destroying pristine environment in order to obtain the oil. It runs the risk of possible oil spills once the oil is obtained and needs to be transported. The process to turn the oil into the plastic often pollutes the air. And finally, once the plastic is made, it eventually ends up in landfills. There it can sit for thousands of years due to being non-biodegradable.

Plastic Bags Are Usually Unnecessary

Of course there are some things with which plastic is a necessity, but there are also many things where plastic does NOT need to be used. Plastic bags are probably the biggest waste of all when it comes to the things plastic is used in. Aside from all the negatives listed above regarding plastic, plastic bags are also an eyesore when they blow all over the neighborhood. To help reduce this, more and more people are fortunately turning to the fabric shopping bags. As an added benefit, are stronger than traditional plastic bags anyway.

So getting rid of plastic shopping bags are an easy fix, but do we even need plastic bags at all? In some cases (like hospitals) yes, but in most cases, absolutely not. We don’t even need plastic bags to keep food fresh. There are several companies now producing eco-friendly “plastic” bags, which are actually not plastic at all. They look and act like plastic bags to keep things fresh, but are in fact made of plant fiber and are therefore 100% biodegradable.

Plant Fiber vs. Biodegradable Plastics

Plant fiber bags should not be confused with “bio-degradable plastics” however. Biodegradable plastics, while eventually biodegradable, are still made of synthetic materials which take a long time to break down. And once they do break down, it’s often just into small micro-plastics. So if you’re wondering if your plastic packaging is truly biodegradable, look for the bags that are made of plant fibers, not “bio-degradable plastic.”

I recently discovered a company that uses such plant fiber (instead of plastic) to make affordable, strong, flexible, fully biodegradable bags. You honestly wouldn’t know they weren’t plastic without being told. I’d been searching for something along those lines for several years. Being committed to the environment, it always bothered me that I had to package my soaps in plastic bags. So when I finally found these, I thought, yippie!! I can sell my eco-friendly soaps in eco-friendly packaging; so when someone throws the bag away, it won’t just sit in a landfill for the next several thousand years. No more plastic bags! And it’s so easy, just changing bags from plastic to plant fiber is a small action that makes a big impact on the environment.

A Small Change With a Big Impact

Considering how many items in the average person’s cupboard are packaged in plastic, if more companies began changing their bags from plastic to plant fiber, it would have a HUGE impact. The Sunchips company began offering their snacks in such bags not to long ago. Unfortunately, consumers began lodging the complaint that the biodegradable bags were too noisy. Maybe it’s just me, but a little bit of extra crinkle noise seems a small price to pay for a fully biodegradable “plastic” bag. It would be tons less trash in the landfills and less oil wasted in the production of unnecessary plastic bags. When the plant fiber bags are thrown away, they just disintegrate into nothingness. Environmentally excellent!

By Amber Reifsteck, The Woodland Elf

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