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Conventional plastic shopping bags have disappeared from many Fredericton stores, but an official with the Fredericton Region Solid Waste Commission says their replacement isn't much better.

Brad Janes, spokesman for the commission, said biodegradable bags don't work here because all garbage at the Fredericton landfill is crushed and buried.

A mixture of sunlight, oxygen and heat is required for any plastic bag to decompose.

"Garbage doesn't get oxygen when it's buried, and it needs oxygen to break down," Janes said. "These biodegradable bags will break down in 30 days with a combination of sunlight, heat and oxygen, but where they are not exposed to those things at our landfill, they won't break down."

Recently, several local retailers have introduced biodegradable bags, but Janes said the bags only work in above-ground landfills.

"We are the only landfill in New Brunswick that crushes and bales our garbage, so we are a little bit different," he said. "For us, biodegradable bags don't make much of a difference."

Sonya Hull, project manager of Fredericton's Green Matters Campaign, said biodegradable bags are worthwhile, regardless of whether they decompose in the city's landfill or not.

"Biodegradable bags still make a big difference," she said. "The problem with plastic bags is that they often end up in waterways and interrupt marine life. We have to think beyond filling the landfill, and there is some larger environmental consequences of plastic bags we have to consider that could be answered with biodegradable bags."

Hull said while biodegradable bags are a step in the right direction, reusable bags should be the goal.

She said she would eventually like to see Fredericton ban plastic bags altogether, as has been done in San Francisco and Leaf Rapids, Man.

"We want to reduce or eliminate plastic bags in Fredericton eventually, but how we do it is not going to be a quick and dirty approach," she said.

"The best-case scenario is that everyone uses reusable, so with that in mind we are trying to from a partnership with businesses where they will voluntarily stop using them, because if you ban something it tends to create bad feelings."

Hull said the city's goal is to educate businesses and the public about the importance of reusable bags, but if that doesn't work, a ban may come.

"A ban could definitely come. Fredericton is a city where I think we will have public support for it, and I have no problem saying that in the future Fredericton will not have plastic bags."