Another issue to consider is the sanitary nature of single use plastic bags over reusable alternatives. After bringing home groceries, a plastic bag will only be used as a garbage receptacle and then disposed of. Many environmentalists assert that you can wash reusable bags, but the hand washing and drying of reusable bags is not only time consuming and difficult for those living in apartments, but also the energy and detergent used does more harm to the environment than disposing of a single plastic bag. It's also fairly obvious that the reuse of bags that have contained meat, fish or even vegetables without properly washing them can lead to serious health risks. Furthermore, while paper bags are meant for single use, pests like cockroaches feed on them in warehouses and factories, and the eggs from these pests then get brought into the home.
Another heavily touted "alternative" to plastic bags is the "biodegradable starch based bag," and while these bags have marketable benefits, these gains do not outweigh their costs and flaws. Current biodegradable bags are similar to standard plastic bags in regards to their usability for consumers, except they are designed to degrade in landfills significantly faster. Researchers state that switching to biodegradable plastic would reduce the amount of space taken up in our landfills by degrading faster and allowing bacteria easier access to their contents ("Biodegradable" 45). However, these bags would not reduce the amount of visible litter, as unless they are in ideal locations they would not biodegrade for 1 to 2 years ("Biodegradable" 41&47). Partially degraded bags also run a higher risk to wildlife as more small animals and birds are likely to mistake the smaller pieces of bag for food then a full sized plastic bag; not to mention that these partially degraded bags are also more time consuming to clean up. The biggest concern for the use of biodegradable plastic is that they are not "compatible with plastic bag recycling" ("Plastics" 83). Indeed, even a small amount of biodegradable plastic introduced into a recycled plastic product could cause disastrous effects, as recycled plastics are used for many important things, such as pipe fittings and garbage bags. Should biodegradable plastics find their way into these end products they would fail upon use but, since there is a time delay for degradation, their defects would probably not be found until used by the consumer. This is a major problem as experts have stated that "low levels of such cross-contamination has the potential to destabilise(sic) large volumes of polyethylene recyclate." ("Biodegradable" 44).
