Future of degradable petroleum plastic goes up in smoke

So the organic additive I thought as being the holy grail of making petroleum plastic degrade turns out to have rather negative consequences.

Fish seem to rather like the look of degradable plastic flakes as they look allot like Plankton.

Defra has shown concern "that these particles of plastic may be ingested by invertebrates, birds, animals or fish".

After contacting The Coop about using bio plastic I received this message:

"Until recently, all our carrier bags and some other plastic wrappers were degradable which meant they were not suitable for recycling as general plastic.

DEFRA commissioned a report that said that degradable additives in plastics offer no environmental benefit and therefore we have stopped using degradable additives in carrier bags, and we are running through the old stock.

Research casts doubt over green credentials of "degradable" plastics - 11 Mar 2010 - News from BusinessGreen

http://randd.defra.gov.uk/Document.aspx?Document=EV0422_8858_FRP.pdf%20

So there goes that plan of saving the world from the curse that is petroleum plastic. It seems to suggest any sort of throw away petroleum plastic is a curse.

So what now?

Maybe Its time to introduce corn starch and potato starch plastic which is food safe.

New Plastic Bags Biodegrade in Four Months | Popular Science

Polylactic acid is a polyester derived from corn starch which decomposes in 4 months and mineralizes into water and carbon dioxide when composted.