Published: 12 Apr 12 17:51 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/money/20120412-41917.htmlShareTweetSupermarket giant Rewe has pulled its "100% biodegradable" bags from shops after an environment organisation called them a "particularly cheeky case of consumer deception."
Teen boob job wannabes 'will have to wait' (12 Apr 12)Global challenge to make canteen food art (11 Apr 12)The white-tailed eagle soars again (7 Apr 12)Germany's second largest supermarket bowed to mounting pressure on Thursday in the wake of a campaign by environmental group Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH) against the bags.
It says they are 70 percent oil and 30 percent polyactic acid, take weeks to decompose and cannot even be recycled.
DUH says the bags have been causing problems when they end up in food waste recycling plants.
Food recycling plants take around six weeks to compost the food waste they receive. The bags arrive at the plant in their hundreds - mixed with food waste - as consumers are under the impression they are biodegradable.
But the DUH says they take twice as long to decompose than the rest of the waste and even then they don't disappear completely - 10% remains in the compost.
"It is completely false to suggest to consumers that they're doing something good for the environment (by using the bags)," Herbert Probst, who runs two compost plants and is head of the Soil and Compost Association of Northern Germany told the taz newspaper on Thursday.
Rewe has denied that the bags are not compostable