Bio-Degradable Trash Bags – CVS Pharmacy Deserves a Mention
26 Apr
Did you know that nearly 1 trillion plastic bags are used every year and that an average family throws away approx. 1,500 plastic trash bags per year!
We wrote about a month ago about the developing trend for high street stores to start carrying bio-degradable trash bags. The closest store that our family could find was a local Sprouts grocery store but all that changed last weekend on a visit to our local CVS pharmacy! There are numerous CVS pharmacies in our local area so we are never too far away from being able to stop in to get supplies and on this particular weekend I was simply calling in to buy some allergy medicine. The pharmacist told me that my prescription would take about ten minutes to fill so I started browsing around the store…
Walking around the store I noticed an entire section dedicated to “green” products including recycled bathroom tissue, recycled kitchen paper and Bio-degradable trash bags. The CVS biobags are made by Perf and are actually the same as the ones I bought at the Sprouts store, except now I only have to drive less than a mile to purchase them.
The packaging is made from 100% recycled paperboard and each bag is made from 70% recycled material.
The CVS bio-degradable rubbish sacks conform to the ASTM D6954 standard. This ASTM D6954 plastic standard test method includes information for exposing and testing plastics that degrade in the environment by a combination of oxidation and biodegradation.
You can get into the “nitty-gritty” of how this test proves Biodegradability of the plastics here;
http://www.astm.org/Standards/D6954.htm
The CVS and Perf philosophy is captured by their catchy slogan “Green should last forever. Plastic shouldn’t.” We couldn’t agree more and we take our hats off to CVS and to Perf for ensuring that every American household has the chance to switch to using bio-degradable trash bags right now.
We took a quick look at CVS.com to see if these new biobags are available online but as of today, they are not, however most people should be able to easily find a local CVS store and purchase some them. The trash bags are 13 Gallon (49 liter) 0.85 Mil bags which we find fit perfectly into both our trash and recycle bins, they are plenty strong enough for a full load of recyclable material or just household waste and you can rest easy knowing that they will degrade into nothing within about a year as opposed to several hundred years for standard plastic trash bags.
Cool Post! Very informative dude. I saw this site while browsing and think it may be relevant http://www.buygreensavvy.com. Keep up the good work!
Glad you're concerned about using biodegradable bags–now maybe you can work on hoofing it to the store instead of "driving less than a mile."
Hi Jodee,
Thanks for reading, you are totally right, I should be walking or bicycling if the journey is short enough however I usually pick up my biodegradable trash bags as part of our weekly groceries run and our family grocery shopping would be too much to carry or bicycle with, also here in Texas the summer heat (100F plus) is a little too much for our groceries. I admit there are plenty of trips where I should be bicycling more and I will certainly be trying to achieve that in 2010.
these are the best bio-degradable trash bags i've ever bought/used. they're nice and strong and fit perfectly over my trash can.
My family tries to do all we can to make our planet a better place. I have a daughter who is opening a day care with the moto of toxic free, no detergents or harmful chemicals used for the safty of the children. Which brings me to this site and trying to learn abouts safer products. I am amazed at what there is to learn and all that is offered to improve our lives and planet. Thank You and I am on my way to CVS to pick up the Green Trash Bags!!!!!! pamela
Hi Pamela, were happy you found our green blog, your daughters idea for a toxic free day care is awesome, please let us know if we can help promote it, we could write an article for her if you send us some details… info@oureverydayearth.com
What a great post! I just stumbled upon it as I was surfing, looking for a store nearby that sold biodegradable kitchen trash bags, with little success. I was just ready to order some online, resigned to the wait and the shipping charges, when I saw this website and the info. about CVS. I will buy them there all the time now! Thank you so much.