Do "biodegradable" plastic bags really biodegrade? These scientists examined the degradation of five of these bags. This is what they found out.
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00:30One of the bags could completely vanish or completely degrade in all of the environments
00:40and particularly in the soil and the marine environment, some of the bags could still
00:45hold a full bag of shopping, so a full bag of shopping that we typically expect to get
00:50on a day-to-day basis.
00:51What the research we've just completed shows is that for the materials we examined, the
00:55plastic bags we examined, they simply weren't reliably degrading at any meaningful timescale
01:00in the natural environment.
01:25Are we talking about it biodegrading in an industrial composting facility?
01:55At 50 to 60 degrees Celsius, at specific conditions of pH and humidity and oxygen availability?
02:02Or are we talking about something biodegrading in the natural environment?
02:06In the sea, in a river, in a soil?
02:08Because they're very, very different conditions.