Biodegradable anti-static bags
All-Spec Industries contacted us about a biodegradable anti-static bag they’re selling for the same price as regular anti-static bags. They have the same properties as the normal non-biodegradable anti static bags, only these degrade within 9 months and don’t pollute the planet. We have a pile of plastic part bags sitting around from Mouser and Digikey orders that we save for storing projects, it would be great to know they won’t sit in a landfill forever if we throw them away.
This type of bag keeps your electronic components from accumulating an electrostatic charge while moving around in the bag. They do not provide any protection against electrostatic discharge, for that you need the conductive bags, also called static shielding bags. For more information about the subject off ESD safe bags you can check out EEVblog #247.
No word if the bags make crunching sounds that annoy consumers.
Via the contact form.
This entry was posted in Chips, kit biz and tagged Anti-static bags, Bio-Stat, Biodegradable.
Comments
My only concern would be humidity and long term storage which could be a danger.
That has to be the dumbest idea I’ve seen in a long time – open up an old component drawer a year later and find a pile of disintegrated bags.
I think you will find they are more aimed at commercial / Industrial places for use as they are being despatched. In commercial / Industrial places, it’s common to have piles and piles of plastic bags every week that just get tossed in the bin, as they are not readily recyclable by many recycling places.
Reducing the amount of crap in this world can never be a bad idea.
The bad idea, is using them for long term storage.
Bio-Stat™ bags naturally break down only when in contact with other biodegrading material…
So its fine to use them as long term storage as long as you don’t keep a sandwich you forgot about in the same drawer :)
I get the impression that it degrades like other degradable plastics. It needs direct exposure to moisture and soil bacteria to degrade. Many dehradable plastics are actaully ineffective beacuae secured inside a garbage bag they never get the environment needed to degrade and stay around forever anyways. Its certainly possible that high humidity or sun light may make them brittle though. Could be a great experiment. I’d toss them on my compost heap for best results :)
Yeah. Biodegradable “things” don’t biodegrade in landfills, because landfills are designed so that the stuff in them won’t biodegrade. (rotting stuff smells bad.) But these are great if you throw your anti-static bags on the roadside or something.
(It’s rather like those corn-based packing peanuts that dissolve in water. Or WOULD dissolve in water if most of them didn’t end up inside several layers of plastic in a hermetic landfill where they’ll never get even damp.)
(and POP those inflatable padding bags! You pay for garbage disposal by volume, not by mass.)
@West – Actually there are many (relatively) new types of plastics out there that degrade and breakdown naturally over a couple of years without moisture, without sunlight, without dirt, etc. Not really sure how you work out that landfills are designed so the stuff in them doesn’t degrade, first time I’ve heard of that! Not sure how they do things in other parts of the world, but most ‘tips’ out this way get watered (sprayed) with recycled water to keep the dust and loose material down and also help the bacteria do their job. As the tip matures, they drive pipes down deep into it and bring up methane to the surface where they burn off the methane and use it to drive power generators which are linked into the national grid. If it wasn’t for the degrading material and bacteria breaking stuff down, there would be no methane to drive the generators.
You may want to see this video before using these bags:
“EEVblog #247 – Anti Static Bag Myth Revisted”
http://www.eevblog.com/2012/02/25/eevblog-247-anti-static-bag-myth-revisted/
http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-science/landfill3.htm
Interesting. This is different to any of the local places around here that I know of, most that I have seen have the power generator systems. I guess if they were trying to put something on top of it then it kind of makes sense, though you would think it would sink down anyway over time.