Stone Paper Put to the Test

Before and after, the Stone Paper crumbles under the slightest application of pressure.

To see how quickly stone paper degrades, I put it to a non-scientific (almost forgot about it) test.  Setting the synthetic shopping paper bags made from calcium carbonate behind our warehouse in full Arizona weather, I waited and waited for something to happen. Here's what I found:

Within 2 weeks the bags began to wilt, the 4th week the colors had started to fade, and by week 6-7 the bag started to crack. Beyond that nothing much happened, until we picked it up. At that point the bag completely crumbled to a pile of eggshell-like fragments.

This bag went from a tear-resistant, slick material to a pile of fragments in a few short weeks. I would love to hear your experiences with Calcium Carbonate synthetic papers, these are relatively new to the packaging industry (actually been around for a while but not commonly used) and any feedback is greatly appreciated.

Comments

[Justin]

What was your reaction to the fact that the stone paper bag disintegrated so quickly? Were you glad? Or, were you disappointed that it hadn't held up. I guess I'm pleased that it crumbled and disintegrated so quickly since I'm interested in materials that are truly degradeable.

[Evelio]

Actually Justin, I was excited to see how quickly this began disintegrating. This brought up a few good points regarding these materials in the context of mass production. Because this and similar materials that quickly degrade do not know when they are in a land fill or on palettes waiting to be used at retail, they are always in a state of decomposition. Meaning that you will need to know how the product will be stored, and you are only able to order the amount that you will need in a shorter period of time. You wont be able to purchase a years worth of bags if in the storage conditions available to you the bags will only last 3 months. There is a lot to think about when working with materials that are meant to decompose quickly, whether it is paper, plastics, boards, foams etc... proper storage will slow the process down so it is key to understand what the storage environment available is before using one of these materials.

[Süyümbike Güvenç]

Sounds very interesting! The use of materials is very important.
Where can i find Calcium Carbonate synthetic papers? Is there any company that you recommend?
Thanks!