A vision based on innovation
Established in Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean for more than 50 years, the company Les Sacs Munger Inc. has always excelled in the manufacturing of polyethylene-based products. Always on the look-out for market trends and concerned about supplying its customers with quality products, the company keeps investing in research and development which allowed it to introduce its new line of oxo-degradable garbage bags since October 2007: MUNGER NATURE.
A high quality line of products
The most amazing thing about MUNGER NATURE garbage bags is that, while retaining their characteristics of strength and quality, the bags can now biodegrade after use thanks to the oxo-degradation process. The polyethylene quality remains the same. It is thanks to the introduction of an additive which has a catalyst effect on thermo and photo-degradation that the polymer biodegradation becomes possible. As long as the bag is not in contact with heat and air, the polyethylene bag retains its full resistance because polyethylene is not biodegradable.
It is by favouring the break-down of carbon molecular chains that it becomes oxidizable (by air, heath and UV rays) and then biodegradable and easily assimilated in the biomass. Our products are offered in the two most common sizes for indoor use, one size for the outdoor and one for pet droppings (to know more, see «product description»).
The materials used in the fabrication of the plastic films have undergone rigorous testing in various European laboratories in order to ascertain that there are no harmful effects on the environment. Currently, there are no government- recognized standards in Québec to certify biodegradable products as non-harmful for the environment. However, European tests have shown that microorganisms, bacteria present in the soil, colonize the film’s surface, feed on it and destroy it according to the biodegradation principle.
Without toxic effect on fauna and flora
The tests demonstrate that that the particles being degraded in the soil have no toxic effect on fauna or flora. In Quebec, there are presently no studies on this subject.
Comparable green products
If one compares oxo-degradable polyethylene bags to other ecological alternatives such as bags made of cornstarch and others, they are less damaging to the environment than products based on vegetable extracts which present other drawbacks such as...
One of our products’ great advantages is its easy biodegradation which has very few side effects on the environment. The degradation phenomenon of oxidized polyethylene is similar to that of lignocelluloses (the degradation of straw in nature).
Although the additive-treated polyethylene preserves its fundamental qualities, it is advisable to keep it in a place away from light and wind. It should be noted that our products do not fear humidity.
The additive within the polyethylene does not prevent it from being fully recyclable. Within the recycling circuit, the manufacturer will proceed to the blending of the films and treat it anew with the additive in order for it to retain its biodegradable characteristics.
A sustainable environment is an environment in which the earth resources can safeguard life and health while allowing for an acceptable progress which can be renewed.
In this context, providing for a sustainable environment means exploiting natural resources intelligently and protecting the complex ecosystems on which depends the survival of the human race.
In order to manufacture polyethylene, petroleum is presently used. However, the share of world petroleum production used for manufacturing plastic bags represents only 4% of global petroleum consumption.
Moreover, the product used in the manufacturing of polyethylene is a by-product from petroleum refining called naphtha which, if it was not used for the fabrication of our products, would be burned-out in the atmosphere.
However, as everything keeps evolving, alternatives are considered in order to manufacture polyethylene from other source materials such as renewable resources like bio-ethanol. This technology, while already used in some countries, is not available yet in Quebec, but, considering the present rhythm of technological evolution, it shouldn’t be delayed for very long.
We’ll have to wait and see, but there is one thing of which we can be sure: oxo-degradation is part of our present and will be part of our future.
