Sir, – As the makers of a green solution for issues facing many brown-bin users, I naturally have a vested interest in the continuation of the bins rollout. However, from an environmental impact standpoint it makes ecological sense to avoid the continued misuse of our waste material. I agree with Ann Marie Hourihane, (Opinion August 29th) that further education is required for the brown bin use, not to mention the green and black.
It is true that if food waste is wrapped prior to being put into the brown bin all of the concerns about smells, flies and maggots are eradicated. Charles Foster (September 1st) suggested wrapping food waste in The Irish Timespages, or using a biodegradable bag. This area requires further education. There is a difference between a biodegradable and a compostable bag. A biodegradable bag is not permitted in the brown bin for the simple reason that it does not breakdown.
Biodegradable bags are mostly made using petrochemically-based plastics which have an additive which allows them to break apart into smaller pieces of plastic over time. However, although these pieces of plastic are not easily visible to the eye they do remain in the environment for many years.
For this reason, they contaminate the composting process where the brown-bin waste is taken, resulting in a defective compost end-product which would otherwise have been used for landscaping, agricultural and gardening purposes.
On the other hand, compostable bin-liners, such as our GreenSax, contain no petrochemically-based plastics, break down completely within days during the composting process and have no negative impact on the compost end-product.
Understandably, many brown- bin users do not realise this important distinction and purchase the incorrect bin bags and this is why local authorities and many private waste collectors are at pains to make the important distinction favouring compostable over biodegradable. – Yours, etc,