Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Climate Change, The Facts

The polymer used in these bags is cellulose, so the bags will be enzymatically digested by bacteria in landfill sites (bacteria use cellulase - a hydrolytic enzyme) into smaller units of two glucoses, and some bacteria turn these into single glucose. The bacteria then convert the sugars, via aerobic respiration, into carbon dioxide and water. So the end product of the bag, given time, is carbon dioxide (returned to the atmosphere to replace the CO2 that was originally fixed into the cellulose by photosynthesis) plus water.