BioPlastic shopping bags, carrier bags, or plastic grocery bags are a type of bioplastic bag used as shopping bags and made from various kinds of bioplastic. Reuse for storage or trash is common, and modern plastic shopping bags are increasingly recyclable or biodegradable.
There are many benefits of bioplastics: by making use of biomass (corn starch, among others) we save on fossil fuels, reduce CO2 emissions and contribute to the realization of a circular economy. Bioplastics are used in the packaging, food services, agriculture and horticulture, medicine, consumer electronics and the automotive industries.
The advantages of bioplastics can prevent plastic pollution from becoming worse, and other methods can be used to help clean up any of this pollution that is already present. Waste to energy programs, and other alternative uses for traditional plastics that are cluttering up landfills and other areas, can eliminate the plastic garbage buildup that harms the earth and environment.
The Indian plastics market is comprised of around 25,000 companies and employs 3 million people. The domestic capacity for polymer production was 5.72m tonnes in 2009. The State of Gujurat in Western India is the leading plastics processing hub and accounts for the largest number of plastics manufacturers, with over 5,000 plastics firms.
The growth rate of the Indian plastics industry is one of the highest in the world, with plastics consumption growing at 16% per annum (compared to 10% p.a. in China and around 2.5% p.a. in the UK). With a growing middle class (currently estimated at 50 million) and a low per capita consumption of plastics, currently 8kg per head, this trend is likely to continue. The Plastindia Foundation estimate that plastics consumption is likely to reach 16kg per head by 2015.