Bioplastics, like biofuels, are on the rise as consumers demand alternatives to fossil fuel-based plastics and big business take their wants seriously. Everything from shopping bags to clamshell containers are being reengineered out of bio-based packaging in the hope of finding a truly disposable container; one that, instead of ending up floating in the ocean, will quickly decompose underground. That ideal, as you might expect, is not quite so simple. And already, our two leading alternative bag types are falling short of the hype.

There’s been a lot of talk recently about bisphenol A, or BPA, which is most commonly found in polycarbonate plastics. These are the plastics used in baby bottles and Nalgenes, the kind that are rigid and unlikely to break when dropped. BPA has been found to disrupt the processes of the endocrine system in animals, but it is still unclear what, if any, the effect on humans is. Still, the news today is that the Canadian government is poised to declare the chemical as toxic when used in food and water containers because it leeches out into its container’s contents.

On the heels of our reporting about Canada's probable move to ban BPA plastics comes a story about researchers working at Missouri University of Science and Technology to develop hybrid plastics that would biodegrade in landfills within four months. As our editor Nicole Dyer pointed out in a comment to the BPA post, the larger and more important issue facing plastics is their propensity to stick around forever.