The Good, the Bag and the biodegradable

I’ve been wondering: Are those new supermarket bags biodegradable? And if so, where’s the study showing how long it takes for the environment to degrade them? Seems to me that once again, people around here came up with a bandaid solution that ended up making the underlying problem even bigger!
How long do they expect people to hang on to those bags if the vast majority is just passing through?

After all this is a tourist town for crying out loud! There are biodegradable plastic bags that’s degrade in a few days being used even in third world countries and yet New Zealand (or at least Queenstown) managed to fall behind yet again!

Don’t even get me started on the
‘fake’ recycling scheme