This is a guest review on the Bio-bags by Gina Ritter @ http://www.ginaritter.com
My husband and I were excited to receive BioBags for review. He and I are both quickly becoming garbage junkies. He describes the flora, fauna and insect life in our compost bin on a weekly basis, and I stare triumphantly at my never-full trash bin on garbage day. In fact, I’ve begun putting garbage out only twice a month to save a stop from the fossil fuel guzzling garbage truck.
BioBags are touted to be the “leading selling biodegradable and compostable bags in the world.” They’re also said to be “widely used by municipalities who have composting programs, such as the City of San Francisco, the City of Boulder (CO), the City of Columbus (OH) and several large communities throughout Europe.”
Fabulous. However, much as we love the thought of using them, you should know that they don’t fit the standard 13-gallon trash bin like other bags. We’ve yet to get one to fit the top of the bin and stay there. It’s more inconvenient when you have kids who don’t care to patiently move a folded in corner of bag before dropping their trash. These bags may fit a round trash bin better at the top (ours is rectangular), but they’re still shorter/smaller than your average 13 gallon bag.
Still, we’re happy using bags that are made from polymers derived from corn, which just so happens to be a huge industry in the United States and is therefore an annually renewable resource. No petroleum!
I thought for sure the bags would be thin and useless, but they’re really quite sturdy. I doubt they would hold up to glass and what-not, but your average garbage is no problem.
They should also be good for organic waste, since the bag will compost with the leaves or food. I haven’t yet tested whether they will indeed compost within 30-60 days as promised. I have no reason not to believe them; I just want to hoard what I have for myself in the kitchen since I shovel or bucket my scraps and yard waste into the outdoor bins instead.
Of course they’re more expensive than your typical petroleum-based garbage bag. But we change out the 13 gallon bag less than twice a week and the rest goes in our compost or recycling bin (which is twice the size of our trash bin). Were you living state where they recycle much less, you will need to choose between cost and conscience.
I’d give them 5 stars overall with a 4 star caveat due to fit.