Another day and another earful from a retailer who can't consider that the products they sell are not what they seem. Case in point: POOCH PICK-UP bags by KYJEN a California company making bags of "Biodegradable Cornstarch". Sold at PetSmart and countless other retailers around the USA.
I had doubts about the company's claims and sent a box of bags to Applied Materials Lab in Illinois for assessment. They were to measure the presence of cornstarch in the product as well as whether the product met the ASTM6400-99 specification for biodegradability.
Here's what the report said:
"The Pooch Pick-Up" package claim of "biodegradable" is not met, based on the requirements of ASTM D 6002 and ASTM D 6400 and the apparent absence of starch. The bags do not meet the claim of containing cornstarch of a detectale percentage... analysis of the tee shirt style, green. 0.9 plastic bags show the composition to be high density polyethylene. They were not found to contain any starch, soy protein isolate or other biodegradable material by this analysis."
Then again, if the manufacturer put the claim on the package shouldn't we believe it?
