Green Trash Bags

Biodegradable and "green" trash bags

A plastic trash bag (or anything made of plastic, for that matter) takes hundreds of years to fully decompose -- and every year, billions of these bags wind up in our nation's landfills. For this reason, many people have embraced "biodegradable" trash bags, which are able to decompose in a matter of months. These bags tend to be significantly more expensive than mass-market brands, and critics say they're only marginally better for the environment.

We say "marginally" because many environmentalists are unconvinced about the benefits of biodegradable trash bags. That's because these bags can only degrade quickly when constantly exposed to air circulation and sunlight. Since most trash bags -- including such "green" bags -- wind up buried beneath tons of banana peels and coffee grounds, most will never get enough air or light to degrade.

Biodegradable trash bags could be handy if you use a compost bin, however, and just want a convenient way to collect organic waste in the kitchen. BioBag Compostable Tall Kitchen Bags (*Est. $20 for 20 bags) are an example. These are made of compostable corn. We found a handful of user reviews for these bags. All users say they are not nearly as strong as plastic bags, so you'll have to be gentle with them.

We were unable to find any convincing reviews of biodegradable trash bags that point to one brand or another. We did, however, find a prominent mention of Seventh Generation trash bags (*Est. $4 for box of 20 13-gallon bags) , which are made of recycled, rather than new, plastic. This doesn't address the problem of biodegradability, but it at least it cuts down on some plastic that would otherwise head to a landfill. In its roundup, Real Simple says "most recycled bags do the job, and earn you a few angel points," pointing to bags by Seventh Generation and The Home Depot. We've included Seventh Generation trash bags in ConsumerSearch Fast Answers because this brand seems to be more widely available, but both of these appear to be good choices if you want to use trash bags made of recycled materials.