We went in Aldi yesterday for a tin of Scottish shortbread and I picked up some compostable multi use bags for 99 Cents.
Great idea thinks me. Then I thought to myself:
"What do you put in them?"
So I started to think and perhaps ask Doctor Google for some information. But before doing that I consulted the missus:
"What do yo put in them?"
"Potato peelings and any vegetable peelings."
I said :" But I can just put them in my weeding bucket or a cardboard box or even just carry them in my hands to my compost heap".
"Exactly she says".
Have these manufacturers tried to reinvent the wheel or am I missing something?
So I consulted Doctor Google for more information on these compostable plastic bags. Apparently they are made out of potato starch and will start to decompose after five weeks. You can put food waste or garden waste like lawn clippings but no meat or diseased plants.
I wonder how many people put ordinary household waste in them and lob them in the wheelie bin and they end up in landfill?
Don't get me wrong. If you used them to bring your shopping home in they are a brilliant idea especially if you compost them afterwards.
Answers on a post card please or better still in the comment box! Thanks.
Oh well. At least the landfill sites won't be full of plastic bags. Just mountains of loose rubbish .
ReplyDeleteVery true JayCee. Self sufficiency guru John Seymour said land fill sites would be the mines of the future. I think the only way to solve the plastic waste problem is to stop making plastic. Or perhaps we should go shopping with string/ net bags again? Thanks.
ReplyDeleteThey don't decompose very well. Put too many in your compost heap and it will be full of fibrous white stuff. I now put them in the general rubbish. They can decompose in there.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the heads up Tasker. I suppose most of them end up in land fill.
ReplyDeleteI assumed they were for general rubbish not compost but possibly better for landfill. I think bags for food bins ar usually made from starch.
ReplyDeleteThanks Mark. Yes it seems a little confusing. I would imagine only perishable and compostable materials would be suitable for these bags.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the compostable bags are just a money-making idea. I have found the plastic to be rather too flimsy and liable to rupture. What are your Aldi bags like? Having said that, humanity has to find new ways of reducing and recycling waste plastics. What has happened in this area in my lifetime is both heartbreaking and wrong.
ReplyDeleteThe bags seem flimsy and look about the size of a pedal bin. In Portugal I have seen recycling bins just for plastics. I don't see many of these over here.
ReplyDeleteWhat a con! I just fill up a bucket and throw the contents in the compost.
ReplyDeleteI'd spend all my money on that Scottish shortbread. We find it at Xmas here too but at around 4 euros a packet I never buy any.
Mmm might make some this year
John Seymour said that the dustman should never need to visit the smallholding. We paid four Euros forty nine for a tin of Scottish shortbread Linda. If you baked some it would make great Christmas presents. Another recipe for your Poros cookbook perhaps?
ReplyDeleteOur council supplies small ones of these for the food waste bins, which are collected weekly and go into some sort of energy generating system. We only ever use them for things like chicken bones, as anything veg related goes into a bucket and then down to our compost heap.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you have a good council the veg artist. We often burn potato peelings in the range along with paper. I have two compost heaps on the go all the time. Thanks,
ReplyDelete