PSA: Compostable Bags

Hey Bunz community!

I have noticed some buns post compostable bags and I realized that lots of people don’t know that compostable bags are not required and are actually prohibited by the Toronto municipal waste management system.

If you put biodegradable plastic in the green bin, they are removed like regular plastic bags and sent to landfill. Also, many biodegradable plastics do not degrade into harmless byproduct (while some do!), and rather into smaller and smaller pieces of plastic, which can present problems for all types of ecosystems if it makes it into the ocean or to birds.

If you have compostable bags, please also do not recycle them ever! They can damage the recycling of other plastic bags if they are recycled together. If the plastic is recycled to be reused, the new items made from this recycled plastic could break down because of the mix with the degradable plastic!

I just thought I would post this info here so that people are aware — since it is very much not obvious that biodegradable plastics don’t belong in the biodegradable bin, and I made the mistake before. I wish stores in Toronto didn’t sell them.

Thank you for reading! I hope this was helpful to some of you ☺️

Source: https://www.toronto.ca/311/knowledgebase/kb/docs/articles/solid-waste-management-services/policy,-planning-and-support/waste-management-planning/accepted-green-bin-items-prohibited-green-bin-items.html