Research

In the bag

Over the last few years, plastic bags have become a virtual social pariah, with shoppers shunning them in their droves in favour of ‘greener’ alternatives. One of these is the oxo- degradable bag, lauded by some as the environmentally-friendly choice. But are they really as ‘green’ as they’re claimed to be? Sarah Hall met Dr Noreen Thomas and her team to find out.

Senior lecturer Dr Noreen Thomas has a pleasant office in Loughborough’s Department of Materials; a pot plant flourishes in one corner and her desk is neatly littered with the usual debris of university life.

But a glance to the top of Noreen’s filing cabinet reveals debris of quite a different kind – a collection of degrading plastic bags. “Don’t open that one, or there will be bits of plastic everywhere,” warns research associate Dr Andy McLauchlin, as we sit down to talk about their work on oxo-degradable plastics.

Last year, Noreen and Andy, along with research fellow Dr Jane Clarke and industrial expert Stuart Patrick, were commissioned by Defra (the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) to investigate the environmental impact of oxo-degradable plastics.

Already widely used in degradable plastic bags, refuse sacks and flexible packaging, oxo-degradable plastics contain additives which cause them to degrade more quickly than traditional polythenes. With most of the readily available information on oxo- degradable plastics coming from retailers or the producers themselves, Defra was keen to gain an unbiased, expert evaluation of their impact on the environment.

There’s a very serious purpose behind this research.

Few will have missed the public storm that erupted over plastic bags, culminating in the then Prime Minister Gordon Brown announcing in 2007 that he would like to “eliminate” single-use plastic bags from Britain. At that point, more than 13 billion bags were issued to British shoppers every year – about 220 per person – with billions littering our landscapes, polluting our waterways and eventually finding their way into landfill.