Polythene UK, the largest broker of polythene film and bags in the UK, is offering free compostable bags, self-titled 'Polycomp' bags, to visitors to the easyFairs ECOPACK Show next February in order to persuade people to switch to a 'greener' option.
The award-winning firm based in Witney, Oxfordshire, provides polythene products to many sectors including the food, furniture, and metals industries and has become one of the fastest growing companies in UK packaging. To demonstrate the powerful benefits of its new compostable 'Polycomp' bags it is hosting a video on its stand (number 310) showing how the bags biodegrade in just over a week. The video, filmed over 10 days, is speeded up so that visitors to its stand can see the whole lifecycle process in just two minutes.
James Woollard, Managing Director at Polythene UK said: "We want to show people the incredibly short lifecycle of our compostable 'Polycomp' bags and to demonstrate how easily they can switch to these 'greener' bags."
James continues: "British shoppers use more than 17 billion plastic bags per year - the equivalent of 350 for every adult. We use each one on average for only 12 minutes before throwing it away. But there is no 'away'. These plastic bags are destined for landfill as soon as they are created, adding to the 2.8 million tonne mound of plastic waste produced in the UK every year."
Polythene UK's 'Polycomp' bags help solve this problem. The biopolymers used in the bags consist mainly of starch and biodegrade fully within just 10 days. The bags are certified as fully biodegradable and compostable according to the European norm EN13432, which has been set up to regulate products which are disposed of in composting sites. Biodegradation within Polythene UK's 'Polycomp' bags takes place as soon as mirco organisms are present, and the process is accelerated even further when temperature is increased.
James explains: "The biopolymer used in our 'Polycomp' bags totally transforms into biomass with CO2 + H2O or CH4 within just a few days in a composting site, meaning they will biodegrade and will not fill landfills. Our compostable bags can be used as general carrier bags, garden and kitchen waste bags and so forth. You would use them as you would most normal plastic bags, but as these can be used in all home compost operations, instead of creating a visible litter you are returning them back to nature."
Polythene UK will be exhibiting at the easyFairs ECOPACK Show on 24th and 25th February 2010 at stand number 310