How many years can plastic bags stay in nature?

Plastic bags can stay in nature for 200 to 400 years, which is a type of dry waste that cannot be recycled and causes serious environmental pollution. The common material for making plastic bags in daily life is mostly resin, which is between fiber and rubber. The quality of plastic bags is influenced by the nature of resin and additives.

Nowadays, many large supermarkets use environmentally friendly biodegradable plastic bags that have a shelf life of at least ten years in nature. Garbage classification has become a trend in China, which can be roughly divided into four categories: recyclable waste, harmful waste, kitchen waste, and other waste.

Plastic bags belong to dry garbage, and in some places they are also called other garbage, referring to other household waste besides recyclable materials, hazardous waste, and wet waste. The common waste in daily life, such as soil, napkins, porcelain fragments, disposable tableware, glasses, etc., all belong to dry waste.

In addition, let's focus on recyclable waste. There are five main categories of recyclable waste: fabric, metal, paper, plastic, and glass. The establishment of recyclable waste can reduce environmental pollution, reduce treatment costs, and improve the utilization rate of social resources.

How long can biodegradable plastic bags degrade?

1. Method of degradation

There are many ways in which biodegradable plastic bags can be degraded, and a common one is to bury them in soil for degradation. The presence of microorganisms and other factors in the soil can help plastic bags degrade better. Therefore, the typical natural degradation period is around 180 days. Of course, this time is only relative to fully biodegradable plastic bags.

Another way of degradation is to throw it into the sea for water degradation. Of course, this method is not very commonly used. Even if it is thrown into the sea, most of it is artificially discarded. However, in fact, throwing it into the sea for degradation is more effective than burying it in soil. As long as the biodegradable plastic bag is fully biodegradable, throwing it into the sea for degradation only takes 1-2 months.

2. Composition of degradable plastic bags

Of course, the composition of degradable plastic bags is also an important factor affecting the degradation time of degradable plastic bags. There are many brands of biodegradable plastic bags on the market now, and the prices of different brands are also different. Merchants will also have different choices when choosing. From an environmental perspective, all biodegradable plastic bags are more environmentally friendly, but their prices are inevitably more expensive.

Biodegradable plastic bags made of whole organisms can be further divided into two types: bio-based biodegradable plastic bags and petrochemical-based biodegradable plastic bags. The latter is more widely used in people's lives and is more prone to degradation. But no matter what type of degradable plastic bag it is, it is necessary to create a moderate degradation environment during degradation, so as to reduce the degradation time.