Pros: compostable, water tight
Cons: very expensive, wish there was a 5 gallon size
This product is definitely a breakthrough: a completely compostable plastic bag that can handle wet trash and animal poop. They are easy to handle and they don't smell toxic or anything.
Being able to use a plastic liner in our compost bin really helps us keep it clean. In the past we've used paper bags, which are no good because they soak through. Or we've simply placed our food scraps directly into the plastic bin, which is nasty because you need to scrub out the slimy bin each time you empty it. Taking the compost out used to be a really disgusting task. And you know the story: if you hate doing it, sooner or later you'll probably quit.
So here's where the bio bags come in. They seem up to the task in every way - they're just too damn expensive. The tall kitchen liners come out to something like 50 cents per bag, which is way too much to pay. Plus, we don't use a tall bin - it would be too big. We use a small bin so it gets emptied frequently (or else it starts to smell). The next smallest size down is only 3 gallons - big enough for a little wee ceramic compost pitcher, but not big enough for the bin we use. These are more reasonably priced per bag, but they're really small! And watch out for the "dog waste" size. These are tiny - about the size of sandwich bags. We bought a box of those by mistake and now we have nothing we can do with them.
For now we're using the 3 gallon bags in our considerably larger bin (we stuffed the bottom of the bin with crumpled newspaper so the bags will fit right and not dangle). I hope the prices come down and that an intermediate size is introduced. It doesn't seem like BioBag has a lot of competition out there. Maybe that's part of the problem?
The only complaint we ever had with these bags was one occasion where one leaked. We pulled it out of the compost bin, full of wet stuff. We tied it off and left it on the kitchen floor. I guess someone forgot it, because it spent the day sitting there. When we got home, the floor was wet underneath the bag, as if it had leaked. Not sure if perhaps the bag had already started to decompose? These guys might have a short lifespan. After all they're designed to break down. Don't expect them to hold up forever if they're exposed to water, light, and oxygen.
