Biodegradable plastic bin bags now in India!

This is one product I have been wanting to blog about for a while now.  Yesterday I ventured back to my local Nilgiris store where I originally discovered it.... and what a discovery!  Nevertheless, these are hard to come by, I had to remove half the shelf's content to find it.  In an era where more and more people are saying "No to plastics!" this product is a welcome sustainable alternative!

These are biodegradable plastic bags from Indian bin bag manufacturer Plastobag from Bangalore (email: plastobag at gmail.com).  They even have a facebook page.  This is one product I strongly recommend, and I am going to bury one of their bags in a spare flower pot on my terrace to see if it really decomposes and after which I will plant a seed to see if plants are affected. 

The bags come in a handy roll with perforated separation to easily detach them, as well as the very handy tie tapes (in white in the photo below) which allows the maid to securely seal the bag and prevent them from being sniffed out by stray dogs and cats and their contents spilled out in the street!

I use these bags to line my rubbish bin where I segregate food waste from plastic, paper and other non-recyclable waste.  I know that in the end it all gets mixed again in the dumper truck, but at least my bio bag will decompose in the land fill and after a few years, only the recyclable-waste will remain, or at least that is the theory!  I have tried, without success so far, to get my local bin explorer who sorts out the plastics and other recyclable waste from the street dump, to accept my dry waste, as I figure it would be a lot more pleasant and efficient for him to sort out what he can resell from a bin that does not smell of decomposing waste.  However, last I approached him he was very happy to accept, maybe because someone paid attention to him (?), but he has not made it into a habit to come back for more.  It would be great if we could organise such people to collect pre-sorted waste from local houses and flat.  They render such a great service to the neighbourhood and the environment but often with such lack of respect from the community.  allowing them to sort through dry waste would also give them back some humanity.  Let's see if a little aspiration, a prayer to Hanuman, and some dedication can