Plastic Bags That Dissolve Harmlessly In Water

Now that people have finally caught on to reusable bags, two companies have teamed up with this — a bag that dissolves in water!  The two companies behind this ingenius invention are Harmless Packaging which is a division of the UK’s Cyberpac and Creative Review which is a visual communication magazine out of London.  The November issue of Creative Review uses the dissolving bag to package their magazine!

I for one, thought this concept was simply too good to be true and definitely wanted to check it out with my own eyes.  Creative Review allows you to do just that on their site as they show the bag dissolving in hot water in a plastic container.  They have a series of 11 pics that show you taking the magazine out of the bag, cutting off the glue strip which doesn’t dissolve but is biodegradable and soaking it in hot water.  After 1 minute, all that remains is the black printed portion of the plastic bag.  After a couple of minutes, all that remains is some sticky residue.

The residue surely isn’t good, is it??  Actually, it’s completely harmless (get it — harmless packaging).  You can even drink it although it apparently isn’t very delicious — go figure.  The packaging company goes on to say that the process of dissolving it in hot water is just to show how the bag breaks down quickly.  It will dissolve in any temperature of water.  In fact, it’s even used to package fish food as you can place the plastic bag containing the food directly into the water!

Another great way to get rid of the bag is to compost it.  While us human folk may not think it tastes very good, bugs apparently love it!  Micro-organisms use the bag as a food source by producing enzymes that react with it.  Therefore, all that’s left of the plastic bag is carbon dioxide, water and biomass — is that science speak for bug poop??  No composter?  Well, you should probably get one — duh!  However, you can also throw the bag in the dishwasher or washing machine.  No harmful residues will be left!

This is truly some creative packaging.  I’d definitely recommend checking out the Harmless Packaging page for more great eco-friendly packaging ideas such as harmless bubble wrap, harmless air pockets, harmless compost (which can be made into envelopes or bags) and harmless bubble envelopes.  Some creative green thinking going on here with some revolutionary new technologies!