But don't worry guys, so long as us plebs keep paying for bags and avoid using a straw when we manage to scrape together enough pennies to eat at a restaurant, the planet will live!
A former friend recently treated me to a 'proper barista-made coffee'. A rather disgusting fluid that left me longing for the nearest instant I could find, no matter how cheap, hence the "former" friend.
However, I wasn't too interested in the vile fluid that dares to try to carry the name "coffee". What I was interested in was the comestible paper cup, the not bad straws in a container on the table - also made of compostable substance though still feeling a little card-y, but the thing that got my attention was the plastic lid. A fully compostable plastic.
I've also been coming across these in courier bags and other things - "eco bags" that are (I hope) fully compostable. If this stuff is not too bad, they why are we not seeing so much more of it? All those wonderful and very useful supermarket bags for a start - instead of getting rid of them (in favour of stuff that's reputedly far worse for the planet!) we could've had compostable plastics made from plant material.
We can be doing so much better to look after our planet!
(PS, the bags don't seem to take very long at all to break down - the most recent to go into my compost heap was a little over a month ago and when I gave it some stirring yesterday there was no sign of the remains of the bag)