alt Hacker NewsMy understanding is that cellophane generally does biodegrade in most settings. Polylactic acid (those cornstarch-derived bags) mostly biodegrades in hot enough compost or (after several years) in ambient-temperature soil, but not very well in cooler water (One study: "The half-life period of degradation [of polylactic acid in artificial seawater] is 12 [days at 90° C] or 468 days [at 60° C]").
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>> 12 [days at 90° C] or 468 days [at 60° C]
Those temperatures are certainly hard to find in nature, outside of hot springs! Even if this is an error and we are talking about 90°F/60°F, the higher temperature is pretty much constrained to the tropics, so we're talking a year+ to degrade in real conditions. It is better than centuries, but not exactly rapid?
That can't be right - even 60 C is 140 F. No normal water bodies are near that hot.
If it's actually 60/90 FAHRENHEIT, very few water bodies are (currently) 90 F. That's above even most equatorial temps.