Purefresh Organic launches degradable plastic bags

NEWS RELEASE
Tuesday, 28 August 2007

Purefresh Organic launches degradable plastic bags in NZ

New Zealand’s largest supplier of organic fruit and vegetables to supermarkets has launched degradable plastic bags for its carrots and will progressively introduce them to the whole product range.

The totally degradable plastic bags are a first for New Zealand and will be trialed with Purefresh Organic carrots and if they perform well will be used across the full range of organic produce.

Purefresh Organic goes through thousands of plastic bags for its organic carrots each year.

While the versatility of plastic bags is undeniable, they are a major contributor to litter and clog landfills and other waste sites. In fact, more than 90 per cent of all plastic that has ever been produced still exists somewhere.

The new Purefresh Organic plastic bags will start to degrade after six months in normal storage conditions and will completely disintegrate after 18 months. Compare this to conventional plastic bags which take hundreds of years to disintegrate.

Anna Aloma, Genera Manager of Purefresh Organic, says: “The degradable plastic bags we’ve selected for our organic carrots contain an additive that causes the plastics to break down safely into water and carbon dioxide making them superior to bio-degradable plastic bags.

“Bio-degradable bags, such as those made from corn starch, require the bag to be in a biologically active environment (for example, by being buried in the ground or in a compost situation) before the degradation process is initiated. They will not biodegrade in the landfill, where most of our rubbish ends up.

“The additive in Purefresh Organic’s bags will actually start to break down the carbon bonds in the plastic, leading to a loss of strength in the plastic, in open air. After that, micro-organisms and bacteria take over and literally eat up what is left.

“If we are to address the serious problem waste litter causes we need to ensure that not only do we reduce the amount of plastic we use but that we also ensure the plastic is totally degradable,” she says.

Packaging is an important issue for the regulators of the organics industry.

“At this stage, packaging is a necessary evil for us to preserve the integrity of organics in retail outlets such as supermarket’s where conventional produce is also sold, but we are very conscious of the impact packaging has on the environment, and we are constantly trying to find ways to mitigate it,”says Anna Aloma.

BioGro – New Zealand’s leading organic certification agency - supports Purefresh Organic’s decision to use degradable bags.

Dr Michelle Glogau, Chief Executive Officer of BioGro says: “Packaging is an extremely important issue for the organics industry, especially in produce.

“Consumers buying certified organic produce have the assurance that it has not only been produced to organic standards but that the types and amount of packaging is also scrutinized.

“We are pleased that Purefresh Organic is taking a proactive approach and moving to more environmentally-friendly packaging,”she says.

ENDS

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