Okay, thank you.
Biodegradable plastics don't degrade in nature. We've shown that. It's scientifically proven. Basically, you can have a plastic bag in nature for three years and it will still function as a plastic bag. They don't degrade. Chemically, they are just as dangerous as other plastics. It's actually been shown that some of the biodegradables are more dangerous. They break down into smaller particles, but we don't have sufficient regulation and we don't have sufficient studies yet to show what those tiny particles that they break down into can do to humans and animals.
This is a big problem. Most of the studies will stop at, say, 20 micrometers. That's small by most people's standards, but when you start to look at organisms, that's where it becomes food. That can kill an animal. The difference between it being 20 micrometers and one nanometre is unknown through most of these plastics. The industry is not interested in looking at it.
This is something that the government really needs to step up on to actually make sure that these plastics degrade properly, not just “we can't see it anymore”. The ISO definition of “we can't see it, so therefore it's gone” is the definition of putting your head in the sand. We know the plastic is there. I know it, because it's part of my research. I'd like to see the Canadian government regulate this. Ask the scientists. Regulate what the scientists tell you that you need to look at and not what industry says.