Compostable plastic bags and cling film.

JKenH

I absolutely hate any plastic food coverings that aren’t recyclable and reuse small plastic food bags (for sandwiches and freezer etc) over and over, of course washing out between uses. My wife was browsing through the Lakeland catalogue and pointed out they now sell compostable cling film and bin bags (although the latter are expensive at 40p each).

https://www.lakeland.co.uk/32670/Lakeland-Compostable-Cling-Film-28cm-x-30m

That prompted me to look online and found a relatively cheap supplier of smaller food bags.
https://www.polybags.co.uk/shop/biodegradable-bag_p56.htm

Ectophile

Do you intend to compost the bags and wrap? In my area, all rubbish gets sent to an incinerator, so there's no point in compostable things that will end up in the bin.

Beware of crinkly hard "compostable" plastics. They are worse than useless. They take years to break down,  and can't be recycled as plastics.

JKenH

Ectophile said:

Do you intend to compost the bags and wrap? In my area, all rubbish gets sent to an incinerator, so there's no point in compostable things that will end up in the bin.

Beware of crinkly hard "compostable" plastics. They are worse than useless. They take years to break down,  and can't be recycled as plastics.

I doubt that compostable cling film or freezer bags will be made of hard crinkly plastics. We put as little as possible in the rubbish bin and have several compost bins in operation at anyone time. We do find the recyclable wrappers made of potato starch that many magazines are now posted in do compost ok.

shinytop

I use compostible bags for my food waste bin and sling them in the compost.  They seem to work.  Not sure of the green-ness of them vs reusing normal plastic ones though.  I'll definitely have a look at that cling film.  

Ectophile

I find the soft green compostable bags do break down eventually in my compost bin.  But it can take a couple of years.

Cardew

Ectophile said:

I find the soft green compostable bags do break down eventually in my compost bin.  But it can take a couple of years.

That is years quicker than some my wife got from Lakeland. They went through the compost bin(the Dalek type) a couple of times and were still a ragged mess.

DiggerUK

I wouldn't waste your time with the claims made by the purveyors of 'compostable' plastic. 

I have recently finished turning our compost heap built up over the last year. We still have a few minor slivers of this non compostable plastic in the pile, this is despite it being thrown back in each year for the third year now. It doesn't look like it will last out this year, but as compost is made and used within a year it's just a P.I.A. to deal with.

I got excited when our village butcher started using compostable carrier bags,  believing they would be helpful in the kitchen caddy.....yeah, right. We also get a few mail shots that boast the wrapping is compostable.......yeah, right.
I'm aware that some company started selling organic crisps in compostable bags,  receiving awards and accolades. I think I'll stick with Garry Linekers offering and not bother with the organic crisps, which will likely be an outrageous price anyway.

Nowhere does it say how long these compostable bags take to break down, as they suggest they be put in the compost bin I have a final comment. Stick them somewhere else..._

Veeto

JKenH said:

I absolutely hate any plastic food coverings that aren’t recyclable and reuse small plastic food bags (for sandwiches and freezer etc) over and over, of course washing out between uses. My wife was browsing through the Lakeland catalogue and pointed out they now sell compostable cling film and bin bags (although the latter are expensive at 40p each).

https://www.lakeland.co.uk/32670/Lakeland-Compostable-Cling-Film-28cm-x-30m

That prompted me to look online and found a relatively cheap supplier of smaller food bags.
https://www.polybags.co.uk/shop/biodegradable-bag_p56.htm

Sadly those bags aren’t compostable, they’re biodegradable. Unfortunately that means they’re still made from plastic. 

Edace2020

I bought some of those so called compostable bin liners for our kitchen caddy but noticed they didn't compost well in our wormery so in the end I replaced the kitchen caddy for a metal one with an inner removable plastic bucket, which I simply dump the contents straight into the wormery when full then give it a good wash. No more need for liners of any kind.