berlin, 14 february 2014. a new lifecycle analysis lca of carrier bags is now available.the study was performed according to iso 14040 and 14044 and was critically reviewedand verified by dekra consulting, oekoinstitut e.v., witzenhauseninstitut and theswiss federal institute of technology zurich eth.the study compared carrier bags made from paper, conventional plastic polyethylene, pe,25 percent recycled pe and a biobased and certified compostable polymer bag pbatplain terms of their &ldquo2in1&rdquo use in regions where organic waste is collected and recovered separatelythis means the bags are used repeatedly as carrier bags and then, in a second step, tocollect organic waste where possible.thus, the study goes beyond a simple material comparison because it considered the addedvalue of compostable bags, which support organic waste diversion.the study revealed a number of environmental benefits for the biobased and compostablepolymer bags compared to paper and conventional pe bags with regard to resource consumptionof raw materials, cumulative energy demand and emissions. the lowest land usewas found for the pe bags, followed by the compostable plastic bag based on nonrenewablepbat. the paper bags exhibited the highest land use.the study further shows that the above environmental benefits of compostable bags increasewhen they are consequently used to collect organic wastes separately.the results of the study confirm that certified compostable bags can play an important role inpromoting a bioeconomy and a resourceefficient europe in countries where organic waste iscollected separately.for more information on the life cycle analysis, please visithttpen.europeanbioplastics.orgwpcontentuploads201402lcacarrierbags2014.pdfsee also &ndash european bioplastic position paper on plastic wastehttpen.europeanbioplastics.orgwpcontentuploads2013publicationspositionpapereubppositionpaperwaste.pdfeuropean bioplastics is the european association representing the interests of the industry along the complete bioplastics&lsquo valuechain. its members produce, refine and distribute bioplastics i.e. plastics that are either biobased, biodegradable, or both.more information is available at www.europeanbioplastics.org 
