Biodegradable shopping bags buried for three years still work
A new study casts doubt on the viability of biodegradable plastics as an answer to plastic pollution.
Laura Parker writes in National Geographic:
Richard Thompson, a British marine biologist who devoted his career to studying plastic waste, has long wondered how well biodegradable shopping bags actually degrade. So in 2015, he and his graduate students at Plymouth University buried a collection of bags labeled as biodegradable in the school’s garden. Three years later, when the bags were dug up, they not only had remained intact, they still could carry almost five pounds of groceries.