Corn starch bags: the alternative to plastic that can even be composted

During the first year of validity of the law regulating the use of plastic in our country they stopped being used around billion plastic bagsThis was announced last December by the Ministry of the Environment; However, this is only a small step in the difficult task of emancipating ourselves from this material that is not only one of the main pollutants of our seas, but also affects even the air we breathe.

For these reasons, it is important to find alternatives that allow us to think about a cleaner future of plastic and one of them is today cornstarch, or what many of us commonly know by the name of cornstarch. Yes, what we have in the kitchen can also become a bag.

Javier Chávez is one of the promoters of this product. A business engineer, surfer and nature lover, he took his concern for the sea to the search for an environmentally friendly material and found the cornstarch bags. After investigating more about them, he decided to start School, the company that created to market them.

“The interesting thing is that this bag breaks down and you can compost it”, Javier points out about the product that he has been selling for exactly a year, and although at first his idea was to sell his bags to shopping centers and stores, the pandemic has led him to place his product directly in homes, through his website.

Javier assures that the price difference with conventional garbage bags would be between 20 or 30 soles per month, something that he considers could be a “Investment in the planet”, since its product is certified EN 13432, which guarantees its disintegration as compost after 12 weeks and its complete biodegradation after six months.

The plastic problem

For Javier the problem was that since its creation no one ever cared about waste or waste. “That was the mistake”, he points out. However, he is confident that its use can be reduced through alternative materials.

“I don’t think there is a future without plastic, but there is a future with well-used plastic”he says optimistically. But he is also emphatic in pointing out that the law in force in our country on single-use plastic will not be enough because “Lacks rigidity”, especially in retail stores that are not audited.

Currently, School It is part of the acceleration program of the Universidad del Pacífico with which it hopes to grow in the business segment and launch new products aligned with its philosophy of caring for the environment.

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