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We shop, we throw things out. For the most part, we put it all in bags. So it makes sense to make a greener bag. But making sense of greener bags can make you feel ... well, bagged.

As biodegradable bags have hit the market, consumers have also been hit by confusing information. Because all bags aren’t created equal. Some bag manufacturers have been sued for making eco-claims that were not true, while some municipalities ban compostable bags because not all biodegradable bags are compostable … leaving consumers confused about which bags actually benefit the environment.

Additonal Excerpt:

Compostable bags entered the Canadian market 10 years ago but gained popularity over the last five years. While some consumers believe the bags will compost rapidly in landfills, the bags are designed to compost in an industrial composting facility, where “the time and the temperature and the moisture content is maintained and regulated by computer,” says Rod Muir, waste diversion campaigner for Sierra Club Canada.

“In a landfill there is no oxygen and very little water. The biodegradation that takes place is absolutely minimal,” Mr. Muir says. Consumers are mistaken if they believe the compostable shopping bags they get from a store and then throw out will quickly degrade into soil at a landfill.