the navy is developing a biopolymeric film material suitable for fabrication into marine-disposable trash bags so that it can comply with impending national and international requirements which will prohibit the discharge of plastics into the sea. two biopolymers, chitosan and regenerated cellulose, were selected and tested to meet this need. after 6 weeks of marine exposure, regenerated cellulose samples disappeared; after 10 weeks, chitosan samples became brittle and separated while chitosan showed greater anaerobic degradation than regenerated cellulose in soil studies, the opposite occurred in the marine sediment environment. aerobic degradation was much higher than anaerobic degradation for both biopolymers. to improve flexibility, 50 plasticizers were tested in chitosan. ten percent lithium bromide and 5 lithium acetate/10 peg 400 in chitosan were the most effective plasticizers. regenerated cellulose films treated with lithium salt solutions also showed improved flexibility incorporating urea and potassium phosphate into cellulose showed that degradation could be increased in soil. tests are ongoing to further accelerate the rate of biodegradation by increasing the availability of nitrogen and phosphorus. fabricating trash bags will require adhesive bonding. five adhesives were evaluated with regenerated cellulose. covinax 220, jw 2-47, and adcote 333t proved acceptable chitosan requires further development to be produced and processed into bags efficiently. with minor adjustments, regenerated cellulose presently meets this requirement; thus, it is the more promisi