Atlantic Poly Blog

While reusable bags seem to be the way of the future, biodegradable shopping bags can help fill the gap in store-provided reusable bags that don't harm the environment.

Plastic bags that are provided by retailers have come under a lot of fire in recent years. The debate over whether or not paper is better than plastic has led many shoppers to bring their own, reusable bags with them on shopping trips.

What about those times shoppers leave their bag at home, for those who buy more than their bags can hold, or for those who don’t want to bring bags to the store with them? For those scenarios, shopping bags that are biodegradable can be the answer.

Advantages of Biodegradable Plastic Bags

While 100% paper shopping bags are completely biodegradable, most retailers hesitate to offer them. Paper bags can be expensive to purchase, and do their share of damage to the environment as well. Many paper shopping bags are also reinforced with plastics, waxes, chemicals, and other products to help them hold up to heavy purchases. These reinforcements rob the bag of its biodegradable attribute and eliminate any benefit to the environment in using a paper bag.

Standard Plastic Bags Vs Biodegradable Bags

Standard plastic shopping bags, such as the kind used in most grocery stores can take a minimum of 20 years to begin breaking down in composition. What little biodegrading that does take place is incomplete and plastic chemicals and compounds leach into the surrounding environment, poisoning it.

Recycled, reusable plastic shopping bags are a great alternative to standard shopping bags, yet aren't always the most practical solution. Shoppers can forget to bring them along, not have them on hand for impulse purchases, not have the right bag size for the purchase being made or not have enough bags. The cost of reusable bags can also be a deterrent to some consumers who expect the retailer to provide a bag for their use.

For more information on biodegradable plastic bags, contact Atlantic Poly.

Green Living

Commercial or industrial customers rely on roll-off dumpster liners for construction, hazardous, manufacturing and debris disposal. Roll off dumpster liners are heavy-duty polyethylene plastic liners, or ‘trash bags,’ that give your company maximum protection to contain waste going into roll-off dumpsters.

There are many pros to using roll off dumpster and dumpster liners. The biggest pro being that your trash is neatly contained in the liner which fits securely and easily into the dumpster. This is by far the most professional, environmentally conscious and efficient way to dispose of your remodeling, demolition, or manufacturing waste. Multiple sizes are available, from 10 cubic yards to 40 cubic yards. Even materials that are difficult to dispose of are acceptable and contained in dumpsters using roll-off liners.

Additionally, dumpster liners reduce leakage, lower wash-out costs and increase container longevity. They also provide a cleaner, safer, easier way to dump debris, construction waste, and airborne contaminants.

Easy, efficient and  safe waste disposal keeps a job site or manufacturing company running smoothly. Atlantic Poly offers standard and custom sizes. Contact us for more details.

Biodegradable poly bags and other green alternatives to plastic grocery and shopping bags are becoming more and more popular. They offer some nice features if you're trying to grow a greener world.

Biodegradable plastic bags are designed to break down in the environment. They pose less of a hazard to ecosystems and sometimes contribute less, long-lasting, plastic material to landfills.

Technologies have been developed to speed up the decaying process of poly bags. Unlike some substances, polythene bags will decay in the environment, naturally; however, it takes decades for this to happen without a little help from new advances in the green science. The science can be tricky, though. Bags have to survive long storage, be strong enough to hold groceries and other items and yet, still be broken down quickly once exposed to wind, water, light, or another trigger to start the decomposition process. Different technologies hasten decay at different rates. There are other things that create confusion, too. It isn't always easy to determine what type of technology makes a plastic bag biodegradable. The technology involved determines how effectively and how quickly a bag will degrade.

Biodegradable plastics are being used or considered for lots of industries, and the more you support biodegradable technology, the more likely it is that responsible environmental practices will become more widespread within the manufacturing industry. Look for biodegradable plastics for these industries:

• Apparel
• Bakery packaging
• Dry cleaning bags
• Electronics
• Food packaging
• Hardware items
• Housewares
• Medical devices and consumable items
• Promotional mailers

When you consider using biodegradable plastic bags, think of using them for more applications than just toting groceries home from the store.

For more information on biodegradable plastic bags for your business, contact Atlantic Poly.

Green Living