Ever since it was used in the market in the 80s, these plastic bags have been one of the necessities when doing groceries and shopping as it can hold stuff as much as thousand times more than its weight. Unfortunately, as years gone by, experts learned how these bags could cause more harm than good, especially when it comes to our environment.
Plastic bags have been considered one of the culprits of why the environment is getting more and more in danger. As reported by Earth Eclipse, plastics can release harmful chemicals in the air, water, and land, which pollutes the environment and affect every living organism. Also, these bags take thousands of years to break down naturally, which only prolongs the nature's agony.
To alter the negative effects, biodegradable plastics were created. But just recently, several scientists from the University of Plymouth in the UK became curious whether it can decompose naturally or not. The scientists decided to put these biodegradable plastics to test by putting one bag underground, leaving another under the sea, and exposing the last one in the air.
At the end of the course of the study, the scientists found out that these biodegradable plastic hasn't had a huge change especially those that were put underwater and underground, as posted by Brut Nature on Facebook. "What the research we've just complete shows is that for the materials we examined, the plastic bags we examined, they simply weren't reliably degrading in any meaningful time scale in the natural environment," says Richard Thomson, Professor of Marine Biology and one of the scientists who conducted the study.
The goal of the creation of these bags is for people to be able to experience the benefit of plastic without putting our environment and lives at risk. Unfortunately, with the recent study, a lot of people are now questioning the efficiency of it.
Jacqueline McGlade, the chief scientist at the UN Environment Programme, claims that most of these plastics won't break down if not exposed to a temperature of at least about 50 degrees Celsius. The problem is, not every part of the earth has reached this temperature. That's why these plastics are still difficult or will take more time to break down.
Meanwhile, it is still unclear up to what point does this product can affect the environment. Others claim it could even cause more hazardous to earth as compared to ordinary plastic bags because of its residues.
