Biodegradable Ireland - for bags that don't cost the earth
Welcome to Biodegradable.ie - the website from Polybags UK dedicated to Irish customers who want to do their bit for the environment.
As the UK's number one manufacturer of polythene packaging and eco-friendly alternatives, Polybags has a marketing-leading range of green packaging, including compostable and biodegradable ranges, plus products made from 100% recycled material and carbon-neutral, renewable bioplastic.
Whether you're looking for compostable carrier bags, 100% recycled mailing bags or carbon-neutral packing bags, you'll find all the eco-products you need at Polybags.
We offer fast delivery to Ireland plus no VAT and great savings on bulk orders for Irish customers.
Buy in pounds, save in Euros - with a big buy-in-bulk bonus
With Sterling's weakness in the currency market, your Euros go further, so you can buy in pounds and save in Euros!
New customs regulations and increased courier costs mean that small orders do cost a little more post-Brexit, but Polybags' Irish customers who buy in bulk can still take advantage of free delivery to Ireland.
All orders over £180 come with fast and free delivery - add to that the favourable exchange rate and you've got yourself a bulk-buy packaging bargain!
Our green credentials
Polybags take environmental matters very seriously. As a responsible packaging manufacturer, we understand the responsibility we have as a company, both to our environment and to the generations who will inhabit our planet in the future.
We manufacture a huge range of eco-friendly packaging that minimises environmental impact, whilst still enabling you to get the job done with the minimum of fuss, including a wide range of fully compostable products made from natural, starch-based bio-polymers.
We operate a 100%-recycling principle, with manufacturing processes designed to minimise waste wherever possible. We collect all waste in-house and use it to make new products, unless doing so is less energy-efficient than disposing of it.
Our eco-packaging range is expanding all the time, with our compostable, biodegradable and 100%-recycled ranges now accompanied by many products made from renewable material and our innovative I'm Green carbon-neutral range.
Latest news and views on biodegradable packaging
Juhi Chawla bats for eco-friendly bags
Juhi Chawla bats for eco-friendly bags – Juhi took the social media platform Twitter to share a fascinating video of plastic bags manufactured of vegetable roots.
2. Use a kitchen caddy and compostable bags
The kitchen caddy and compostable bags are an easy and efficient method of recycling your food scraps through your green organics bin. Use your kitchen caddy in the kitchen, either on the bench top or below the sink. When full simply tie off the compostable bag and place it directly into your green organics bin. This material will then be sent to a commercial composting facility where it will be turned into high quality compost.
Contrary to PLA biodegradable products, oxo-degradable bags provide an environ-mentally safe product without affecting performance at an economically sensitive price.
British pack manufactures biodegradable bags by the used of supplements that promote fast polymer degradation after disposal. The bags are moisture resistant and are able to withstand loads.
What is a compostable packaging?
If you need a few more reasons to convince you to make the switch above to compostable packaging, here are a few.
Biodegradable Packaging Materials Market Segmentation: By Regional Segment:
Global Biodegradable Packaging Materials Market report also sheds light on the evaluation of growth opportunities, challenges, market threats and constraining factours of the market. This report will assist you to know each and all fact of the Global Biodegradable Packaging Materials Market without a need to refer any other research report or a data origin. It studies regional as well as global market and emerging segments, and market dynamics also. Moreover, it offers insight into the competitive landscape, market driving factours, industrial environment, and the latest and upcoming technological advancements to determine the overall scenario of industry and transport forward to form lucrative business strategies effortlessly.
What is Biodegradable Packaging?
Compostable packaging is similar to biodegradable packaging as the materials used securely return to the earth. The stark contrast between the two is that compostable materials replenish the soil with nutrients . They also need certain composting conditions, whereas biodegradable materials are manufactured to decompose in landfills.
You can put things straight into the green bin. You can wrap food waste in newspaper or put it in a paper bag. Please do not biodegradable 'plastic'or corn starch bags. These do not smash down fast enough and result in additional processing costs. Your bin could also be refused assortment. More information on how the compost is manufactured can be found on the Recap website . You can come by out your bin assortment days on our bin assortment day page
Biodegradable plastics are sometimes manufactured from materials that microbes do readily digest. Others may be held together with chemical sticks that smash apart when exposed to water or sunlight. There's also none rule for how fast biodegradable plastic bags should smash down. Some plastics may even need special conditions like heat to fully smash down.
Why degradable or biodegradable packaging?
Biodegradation is the process by which organic substances are broken down by the enzymes produced by living organisms.
The website Packagingknowledge.com states: "Conventional plastics do not break down. Litter and landfill waste may take years to degrade. Another problem with ordinary plastics is that anything contained within them may not reach their full degradation potential. This results in a needless waste of valuable landfill space."
Based on the material used, bioplastics can take varying lengths of time to totally compost, but usually biodegrade up to 60% within 90 to 180 days. It is also important to know the differences between degradable, biodegradable and compostable.
Compostable
"Capable of undergoing biological decomposition in a compost site as part of an available program, such that the plastic is not visually distinguishable and breaks down to carbon dioxide, water, inorganic compounds, and biomass, at a rate consistent with known compostable materials (e.g. cellulose) and leaves no toxic residue." - American Society for Testing & Materials (ASTM).
So in order for a plastic to be called compostable it needs to meet three rules:
- It needs to be able to biodegrade, i.e. it needs to break down into carbon dioxide, water and biomass at the same rate as cellulose (paper)
- The material has to fully disintegrate, i.e. be indistinguishable in the compost
- Eco-toxicity - the biodegradation must not produce any toxic material so that the compost can support plant growth
Biodegradable plastic
Biodegradable plastic is one which can be chemically degraded via natural effectors such as soil bacteria, weather, plants or animals.
Note that there is no requirement for leaving no toxic residue, as well as no requirement for the time it takes to biodegrade.
Degradable plastic
By definition, this term refers to a plastic film containing a controlled percentage of an appropriate non-toxic, non-tinting additive, which will enable the plastic film to totally degrade when exposed to aerobic or anaerobic conditions, including when disposed in a landfill or other regulated dumping area, and within such period of time as specified.
A plastic therefore may be degradable but not biodegradable or it may be biodegradable but not compostable, i.e. it breaks down too slowly to be called compostable or leaves toxic residue.
