Super Eco

Photo credit: biopac

Every time I get a romantic notion in my head that I can live entirely without plastic (at the very least, of the bag and takeout container variety), I go to the farmer's market and have my hopes dashed. There, at every turn, perfectly bucolic farmers, some actually sucking on a piece of hay, are handing out their produce in plastic bags. I grab a pound of jewel-like huckleberries, or a package of fresh-from-the-farm hazelnuts, and my shoulders sink in dejection. Plastic, it seems, is forever, and I'm not only referring to how long it will weigh down our oceans.

Enter Biopac, an English bag maker which has developed an entirely biodegradable (in 12 weeks in a compost heap) "plastic" bag made from waste potato starch—a far cry better than any petroleum-based plastic, which never fully biodegrades, instead simply breaking down into tinier and tinier plastic bits. They're calling the new bag, which is also reusable, the 'Good Bag.'

Biopac, based in Pershore, Worcestershire, is a leading developer of eco-friendly packaging materials and is currently marketing the bags to businesses in the U.K. for £50 for 1,000 bags. I may have to wait a while here in Portland to see potato-based plastic bags, though I've already seen a number of corn starch-based plastic products (especially takeout containers) and potato-based coffee cups and lids. Some of 'em are in my compost pile right this minute. It's not a plastic bag; and that's exactly the way I'd like it.