biodegradable bags and thoughts on being green

When the cashier at Mountain Equipment Co-operative (MEC) asked if I wanted a plastic bag for my newly purchased sling-style bag, she said, "Do you want to add to your collection of bags?" (note: I had three other plastic bags full of groceries), I reluctantly agreed to take yet another one.

What I didn't realize was this MEC bag was biodegradable. This concept is very environmentally friendly. Growing up in my household, or family always used plastic bags from stores to collect our refuse. So having biodegradable plastic bags (if they are used as garbage bags) would be ideal. But I wonder what the shelf life of these bags are. Suppose the store doesn't use that many bags (as the disclaimer on the bag actually discourages its consumers from using additional bags), then what if they ordered too many bags? Are these bags ... garbage?

Earlier that day, I went grocery shopping with a friend in Chinatown. She opted to use a cloth bag to tote around her food purchases. Her cloth bag brought back memories of my mother, who being the pragmatic chinese seamstress she was, made bags for us when we were kids ... bags for library books, bags for ballet gear, for example. When Superstore started charging a per bag fee, she sewed several large cloth bags to use. I guess she was environmentally friendly way before it was fashionable.