Melt-away bags: The use of an additive speeds up degradation of these oxo-biodegradable plastic bags, reducing them to carbon dioxide and water. They are made by the company Sewanis using dmas oxo-additive.
WHILE I applaud the Sibu Municipal Council’s efforts to reduce plastic pollution by banning non-biodegradable plastic bags, “Sibu’s tough stand against plastic” (The Star, Jan 22), its proposal to replace conventional plastic bags with purportedly “biodegradable” plastic bags poses fresh environmental problems.
The plastic pollution reduction regulations and policies currently in place in Malaysia seem to mostly encourage the replacement of conventional plastic bags with paper bags, purportedly “biodegradable” plastic bags and cheap non-woven shopping bags. In addition, polystyrene food packaging is merely replaced with other types of non-foam plastic food packaging, and so far there does not appear to be any organised or official effort to recover, collect and clean these types of plastic packaging for recycling.
