The Disappearing Act: An Update

Even though the year is coming to an end, the degradable bags are not! As you may remember, last February I started an experiment with three of our degradable plastic bags. Being the skeptic, I wanted to see if these bags truly will degrade into brittle flakes, eventually disappearing right before my eyes!

I started with three bags:

• Bag 1 does not get used
• Bag 2 gets used occasionally
• Bag 3 was on the roof

We are now in month 10 of the experiment. Bags 1 and 2 still look and feel like normal plastic bags. However, Bag 3 is now only a rectangular piece of plastic. I recently brought it inside because I was concerned about it blowing away. This change in environment has not stopped the degradation process. However, I do suspect the process will be slowed a little inside.

We still have 7 months before the other two are supposed to start degrading. Check Practice Essentials regularly to read more about our own Disappearing Act!

-Mary

*This post is part of an ongoing series of post. To read all of the entries about the degradable bags, click here.