[Market-farming] market supplies: plastic bags, berry baskets, etc.

Road's End Farm organic87 at frontiernet.net
Thu May 14 10:08:49 EDT 2009


On May 14, 2009, at 9:46 AM, Marty Kraft wrote:

> When a boidegradable bag biodegrades what does it biodegrade into and
> where does it go?

That is a very good question. Not everything claimed to be 
"biodegradable" actually is; at least, not in the sense of breaking 
down entirely to naturally-occuring substances, none of which are 
toxic. Some "biodegradable" plastic mulches, for instance, are not 
acceptable for organic production; either because the results of the 
breakdown do include toxins, or because the plastic does not actually 
degrade in any remotely reasonable length of time, but just comes apart 
into flakes that are too small to interfere with later farming 
operations, but whose long term effect on soil life are unknown.

I don't know whether studies are available on any of the bags people on 
the list have referred to. Did anyone investigate these? I'd be 
interested in links to the studies, if they are available.

-- Rivka; Finger Lakes NY, Zone 5 mostly
Fresh-market organic produce, small scale
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