Authorities should encourage polythene paper manufacturers to produce environmentally friendly biodegradable bags and paper rather than producing non- biodegradable polythene which pollutes the environment,leading compostable and biodegradable paper manufacturer, Plastic Packaging (Pte) Ltd, Chairman Mervyn Dias said.
Speaking to Daily News Business, Chairman Dias said many countries are using compostable and biodegradable bags as they are the only solution to reduce environmental pollution.
“Over 500 billion people worldwide use non degradable polythene every year and they are deposited in the environment for more than 500 years as they are not biodegradable,” he said. Referring to a recent media briefing, Chairman Dias said even the proposed 40 micron polythene pollutes the environment.
Chairman Dias said although people all over the world produce organic waste, plastic waste and many other types of waste, there is no permanent solution for waste management.
As a leading biodegradable paper manufacturer Chairman Dias said these bags are exported to UK and few other countries and also started supplying to the Sri Lankan market.
“Many European countries use compostable and biodegradable bags to collect their biodegradable kitchen food waste.”
Chairman Dias also proposed that the Central Environmental Authority (CEA) encourages local manufacturers to produce biodegradable bags while encouraging householders to use the method of recycling of food waste by composting.
He said the CEA should also encourage people on home composting as it will help to reduce biodegradable waste being sent to dumping grounds.
Dias said his company manufactures waste collection bags for bio-waste generated in the kitchen and leaf collection bags to collect garden waste.
He said householders use these bags to collect only bio-waste and thereafter dispose it into the home compostable bin or hands it over to the bio-waste collectors for composting.
“We manufacture compostable and biodegradable bags with aglobally certified compostable and biodegradable bio-resin which is imported.” He said the compostable bags that he manufactures under the trade name`Naturplus’
has no polythene.
He said the advantage of using these waste collection bags is that there is no smell of bad food when this bag is used, no worms grow in the bag and there is no health hazard to householders as well as to garbage collectors.
“The compostable and biodegradable products do not have any polythene and conforms to European standard EN13432.”
These compostable and biodegradable bags gets composted within 180 days in an industrial composting plant and should have the correct temperature, moisture and correct oxygen content. Dias said that certification is a must to export these bags and they will not import any compostable bags without the certification. The certification also guarantee that the products would gets composted.
He further said chemical composition, biodegradation, quality of final compost and eco-toxicity are key requirements needed to obtain certification from these certification bodies. `Naturplus’ bags have got necessary approvals for compost and home compost certification and therefore Naturplus products gives a guarantee that the bags will get composted.
More information could be obtained from ppp@eureka.lk or www.pppcompostablebag.com.
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