5      Why is this important to the environment?

Landfills:        Despite a desire to prevent biological activity in landfills, it happens. This is evidenced by the many landfills that recover (some of the) methane gas that is produced. A high proportion of plastic carrier bags are reused to contain organic waste. These are placed in landfills and the waste eventually (over many years) is biodegraded into methane, a particularly harmful greenhouse gas. When oxo-biodegradable bags are used, they degrade and disintegrate relatively quickly (over a few months) and allow the organic waste that they contain to biodegrade near the top of the landfill where there is more oxygen available. This reduces the rate at which valuable landfill space is used up and leads to the formation of carbon dioxide, 24 times less harmful than methane.