Even though the ultimate goal with regard to plastic pollution and waste is to reduce your overall consumption and to reuse and recycle as much as possible, there is still going to be some garbage that will need to be disposed of. The question then becomes whether there is an environmentally-friendly garbage bag that we should be using.
The answer to this is "sort of." There are multiple options you may consider:
Traditional single-use plastic garbage bags are made from petroleum products and do not break down under any conditions in the environment. They will disintegrate into smaller pieces eventually but will never actually decompose.
Degradable or oxo-degradable garbage bags break down into small pieces more quickly due to chemical additives, but they do not decompose.
Biodegradable and compostable garbage bags are made from plant-based materials such as corn starch, wheat, vegetable oil, etc. The main difference with this type of bag is that they will actually decompose under the correct conditions.
The reason the answer to the question above is "sort of" is because even though compostable garbage bags are the best option, certain conditions are required for them to decompose:
The temperature must be at or greater than 50 degrees Celsius. Compostable bags will decompose quicker in composting bins due to the higher temperatures that are created during the composting process when compared to a landfill.
They must be exposed to UV light; therefore, compostable bags will not decompose in a marine environment such as the ocean and can still be eaten by marine life.
Compostable bags will break down without oxygen, thus producing methane, which is a greenhouse gas that can cause more harm to the environment than carbon dioxide.
Make sure the bags you purchase are certified compostable by the Biodegradable Products Institute (BPI-certified), which ensures that they are compostable only in an industrial facility. (Trusted home-compostable certification is not yet available.)
After having used compostable trash bags for some time (specifically Unni; see the BPI-certified symbol in lower-left corner of the box in the photo above), the only big disadvantage I have experienced is that they are not good for wet items, as these will cause the bags to break apart in your trash can, especially if they become full. Hopefully, if you compost this is not much of a problem; if not, you will need to find another way to dispose of wet items or be extremely careful when putting them in your compostable garbage bag.
Objective: Purchase one box of BPI-certified compostable garbage bags. Examples include those sold by Unni, Biotrashbag, BioBags, Primode, and SecondNatureBags. All can be found online.
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