Paper vs. Plastic vs. Bio Plastics

The purpose of this page is to highlight some environmental issues to be considered when choosing a retail bag.

Our Oxo-biodegradable Bags:

This plastic breaks down in a matter of months once exposed to the elements due to a revolutionary TDPA additive.
Once the TDPA additive takes effect the bag is degraded into increasingly smaller particles until microorganisms consume them, turning it completely into harmless water, CO2, and biomass.
The TDPA formula also allows the bag to be recycled along with other bags prior to its degradation.
These bags pass ASTM D6954-04 standards.

They can take over 500 years to degrade.
An estimated 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are used worldwide annually.
Over 100,000 birds and marine life die each year due to plastic bags.
Only 1-3% of plastic bags are being recycled.

The production of a paper bag generates 70% more air and 50 times more water pollutants than plastic bags.
It takes more than 4 times the energy to manufacture a paper bag than a plastic bag.
It takes 91% less energy to recycle a pound of plastic than it does a pound of paper.
Only 10-15% of paper bags are being recycled.
Due to the negative impact that paper bags have on the environment, we only stock paper bags made with 95% recycled paper. It's our belief that using recycled paper offsets the negative impacts of the initial paper production.

Starch bags have shelf life of roughly 1 1/2 years from the date of production (this changes depending on the formula).
They cannot be recycled and when they are recycled accidently, they degrade the plastic quality of the recycled product (oxo-biodegradable bags can be recycled!).
Many city composting facilities do not accept starch based retail bags.