What to Know About Biodegradable Trash Bags

And how to separate organic waste from the rest of your trash.

byVictor Tan|
What to Know About Biodegradable Trash Bags
Reduce your impact on landfills with biodegradable or compostable bags. Pexels/Anna Shvets
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Interested in producing less waste? In addition to recycling, check out biodegradable and compostable garbage bags.

Each roll is made from plant starches and will disintegrate completely in a composter or the landfill.

Regular plastic trash bags don’t break down over time, meaning they will never get smaller than the size they are when you toss them in your trash can. Biodegradable plastics do eventually break down over time, but they typically won’t dissolve completely. Compostable bags do break down completely, just like food scraps.

These bags are made of plant starches, vegetable oils and other plant-based polymers.

If you fill a compostable bag with trash, it still has to be taken to a landfill. But the bag itself will still biodegrade.

Each set comes with 25 bags per roll (125 total).

If you want to make sure your compostable trash bag ends up in a composting facility (or in the compost pile in your backyard), you need to fill it exclusively with organic waste, such as food scraps, lawn clippings, wood, paper and animal waste. Separating your trash will also make you more mindful of your waste output.