Besides from crude oil, plastics can also be made from corn, potatoes, sugar cane or wood. But using food as a basis for packaging material? This faces a lot of criticism. Furthermore, the cultivation of the raw materials can damage the environment and bioplastic has the same disposal problem as plastics on a crude oil basis.

Would compostable bioplastic bags be the solution? Yes and no. This material decomposes in a comparatively short time, true, but only under specific conditions. Spoiler alert: the domestic compost heap rarely offers these conditions. In industrial composting plants we can see two clear problems: the compostable bags are often sorted with non-decomposable bags and they do not produce organic material because the process takes longer than, for example, the decomposition of banana peels.