This past Sunday creator of Green News 4 U Mel Wylie interviewed our very own Teresa Clark, Co-founder of ENSO Plastics, LLC.

What is ENSO…How does ENSO work…& Why is the ENSO product different ?

These are just the surface questions that Teresa will be answering in the 14 th episode of Green News 4 U’s Podcasts. Listen to the podcast here!

With the array of misconceptions the “earth friendly” plastics industry current holds, Green News 4 U’s Mel Wylie was determined to get the facts. Being an avid environmental guru, Teresa was able to clearly educate listeners with the facts…no green-washing here. Mel also took the time to get Teresa’s views on some of the most controversial cultural plastic debates of the moment. Some of the topics covered in this podcast include the single use plastic bag debacle, chemicals leaching into water of plastic bottles, proper packaging labeling and much, much more.

Go ahead and check out the podcast here to see how Teresa answered all of green news 4 u’s questions! Let us know what you think of the podcast in the comment box below, and don’t forget to share this blog with your friends.

If you like this podcast be sure to keep up with Green News 4 U’s via facebook & twitter

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#1 PET (Polyethylene terephthalate) – #1′s are usually Fizzy drink
bottles, oven-ready meal trays and water bottles . These items are
recycled at a rate of 19.5% the highest of all recycled items.

#2 HDPE (High-density polyethylene) – #2′s are Milk bottles, detergent
bottles, yogurt and margarine tubs, cereal box liners and grocery, trash
and retail bags. These items are recycle at a rate of 10.7%, the second
highest of all recycled items.

#3 PVC (Polyvinyl chloride) – #3′s are Cling film (plastic food wrap),
vegetable oil bottles, loose-leaf binders and construction products such as
plastic pipes. These items are recycled at a rate of 0% which means, not
at all….so what’s the point of throwing them in the recycling bin?

#4 LDPE (Low-density polyethylene) – #4′s are typically Dry cleaning
bags, produce bags, trash can liners, bread bags, frozen food bags and
squeezable bottles, such as mustard and honey. These items are recycled
at a rate of 5.6%.

#5 PP (Polypropylene) – #5′s are Ketchup bottles, medicine bottles,
aerosol caps and drinking straws. These constantly used items are
recycled at a rate of 1.7% .

#6 PS (Polystyrene) – #6′s are Compact disc jackets, grocery store meat
trays, egg cartons, aspirin bottles, foam packaging peanuts and plastic
tableware. These items are recycled at a rate of 0.8%.

#7 Other - #7′s are Three- and five-gallon reusable water bottles, certain
kinds of food containers and Tupperware. These items are recycled at a
rate of 6.1%.

As you can see, recycling rates even for the most commonly recycled  items are pretty low. Even though Recycling is important waste continues to accumulate in landfills, at sea, and shipped to other countries…that is why ENSO biodegradable and recyclable plastics are so important. For the ENSO plastic that does not end up getting recycled, at least it will biodegrade!

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I recently came across an unusual and touching fundraiser put on by Project Kaisei. If you haven’t heard of them, Project Kaisei is a California based NGO that focuses on cleaning up plastic waste from the North Pacific Gyre. This company also concentrates on integrating technologies to turn the plastic they collect into fuel or secondary products. Project Kaisei strives to bring awareness, education and showcase new technologies. So far they have taken 2 expeditions into the N Pacific Gyre to study the impacts and issues that result from plastic waste. The plastic waste found there is a mixture of new trash and small plastic pieces that have been broken down by the sun. Most of the plastic is not biodegradable plastic or does not have a chance to, and if it has not washed up on a shore somewhere or sunk to the bottom of the ocean it is still floating at sea.

To learn more about Project Kasei visit their website http://www.projectkaisei.org

The Campaign   “Save Kai”

In order to take another expedition Project Kaisei has come up with a facebook fundraising campaign that involves a Goldfish named Kai.

On the Save Kai page you can watch Kai 24 hours a day swimming around in a aquarium protected by a plastic wall. After  30 days from the start of the campaign Kai will be removed from his safe home and into a new home, known as the Plastic Vortex. You can learn more about the waste filled Plastic Vortex on the Save Kai page http://on.fb.me/savekaino

With every donation, Project Kaisei will remove a piece of plastic from Kai’s future plastic polluted home. This may seem cruel but it’s there way of convincing people to help clean up the Plastic Vortex and save millions of sea life. Whether you plan to donate or not you should check out the page to learn more about this campaign and the amazing work done by Project Kaisei.

Help Spread the word!

ENSO Biodegradable Plastics appreciates this cause because we have a passion for making plastics Earth Friendly.

Please visit Kai on the Save Kai Facebook page http://on.fb.me/savekaino

Tweet & Facebook post about Kai!

Check out this Video! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AO5asmSvrL0

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Plastic garbage washed up on an island off Baja, California

Our world’s oceans are home to five growing plastic gyres – vortexes of swirling ocean currents filled with degrading plastic that pose a serious threat to marine life.

Captain Charles Moore, noted author and oceanographer, has spent years conducting ocean and coastal samplings documenting plastic fragments along the 40,000 miles of the North Pacific Ocean. Captain Moore was the first to discover the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, otherwise known as the Pacific Gyre, which lies in the northern Pacific near Hawaii. This is the largest of the known gyres – roughly 12,400 square miles in size and growing – and filled with swirling fragmented colorful plastic debris.

Plastic in the ocean takes roughly 600 years to degrade fully. Marine life like sharks, dolphins, whales and numerous species of fish mistake these colorful remnants of our castoff trash as food, often suffering starvation due to the trash being indigestible. Oddly, it’s only the colored plastic they go for, though the clear plastic is also hazardous. Plastic water bottles are regularly found tangled in ocean coral, littering the ocean floor.

Can you find the sand on Plastic Beach (Kamilo Beach, Hawaii)?

Plastic garbage doesn’t just stay in the ocean. Storms periodically break gyres up, pushing waves of trash onto beaches around the globe. Hawaii’s Kamilo Beach is frequently known as Plastic Beach due to its continually being overrun with plastic trash brought in by the ocean’s waves.

This plastic comes in all sizes and forms – discarded toothbrushes, combs, cups and, of course, plastic water bottles. Plastic trash discarded in Asia and Europe makes its way to the ocean, gets caught in the Indian Ocean gyre, then gets pushed back again to litter the once pristine shoreline.

We use 2 million plastic beverage bottles every 5 minutes in the U.S.

“No one is (looking) at it as a global phenomena and at the root causes (to) try to make it stop,” said Cecilia Nord, Vice President – Floor Care Sustainability and Environmental Affairs of Swedish-based Electrolux.

“We need to make it stop,” she said.

Marine life die from starvation after ingesting plastic garbage from the sea

“Only we humans make waste that Nature can’t digest,” says Moore.

ENSO Bottles realizes that what’s needed is a shift in thinking as well as action.  By creating their innovative biodegradable plastic bottle with the ENSO additive, these PET-based bottles break down, rather than contribute to the world’s plastic pollution. It’s part of ENSO’s commitment “to act as environmental stewards.”

With plastic trash increasing the world over, and the devastating effect this has on marine life, it’s crucial for consumers to become responsible stewards who take on recycling to a level not seen before is needed.

Individuals doing their part can make the difference.

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This statistic was touted in the news as an ever-growing commitment by consumers across the country to recycling efforts. But all is not what it seems.

According to a report in Consumer Digest (January-February 2010):

“Recycling programs vary from city to city, and there’s no national tracking system. Information regarding what’s being stockpiled is anecdotal, at best.”

While “facts” are available regarding PET plastic, it’s difficult to track down accurate comparable information on HDPE plastic, making it hard to gage any across-the-board success of recycling programs.

In the fourth annual surveydone by Plastics Recycling Update, 40% of HDPE recyclers said their volumes increased in 2009 while another 40 percent said their volumes were down. In the same survey, 53.8 percent of PET reclaimers said their volumes increased in 2009 while only 15.4 percent said their volumes declined.

As you can see, it’s challenging to figure out the overall picture in regards to how much total plastic is being recycled in the U.S.

True statistics on how much of which type of plastic has been recycled is difficult to find

PET (#1 plastic) and HDPE (#2) plastic make up approximately 96% of all plastic bottles produced in the US. This includes milk jogs, water, soft drink and juice bottles, shampoo, toiletries, laundry detergent, household cleaners, salad dressings and other types of food jars.

Many of the recycling statistics focus on just water and soda bottles, said Danny Clark, President of ENSO Bottles, Inc.

“They completely exclude the billions of shampoo, soap, food and non- food PET and HDPE bottles,” he said.

“While the increase for those specific segments is a move in the right direction,” Clark said, “we feel that it would be best to include all possible PET and HDPE bottles when making claims of improvement.”

“We are missing the boat and confusing many people about recycling by focusing on and cherry picking the “good stuff”.

With the decrease of total PET bottles and jars available for recycling in the US, it begs the question: do the numbers really reflect what’s going on in the market? Without any reliable gage or reporting mechanism, shouldn’t the focus be on getting the overall big picture instead?

Statistics (what there are of them) are showing that consumers are concerned about and aware of the increased need for recycling, while the recycling market is declining due to low market prices for recycled material. If only one side of the equation is successful, does that really mean the entire process is?

If the numbers don’t really reflect what’s going on, it seems that we need to put something in place that will give a more accurate view. The question is, what’s the mechanism that will help us do that? Is it legislation? Private industry stepping up? An NGO creating an overall reporting process? What’s your idea?

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Oxo biodegradable plastic fragments into small pieces animals mistake for food

Consumers have gotten somewhat familiar with what can or cannot be recycled. But few consumers understand what oxo biodegradable plastic is or the impact that it has on the environment.

Oxo Biodegradable Plastic (OBD) is a polyolefin plastic – a type of transparent plastic often with an oily or waxy feel to it – that’s had small catalytic amounts of metal salts and/or heavy metals added to it.

According to the Oxo-Biodegradable Plastics Association, “until the plastic has degraded, it has the same strength, impermeability, printability and other characteristics of normal plastic.”

This statement, however, is misleading. The nature of oxo biodegradable plastic is that it begins to break down almost from the point of its manufacture. This is what gives it a limited shelf life. Manufacturers have tried to combat this by adding anti-oxygen components to the plastic. This, however, weakens the polymer and ends up contaminating the recycling stream. Also these salts and metals are inorganic materials and, because they don’t break down, will remain in the soil or environment long after the material itself breaks down.

This type of plastic poses a real hazard to the environment.  Its components break down in fragments, small pieces that are often mistaken by animals for food. There’s no real scientific evidence that small microbes are breaking the plastic down to its natural elements.

ENSO bottles won't contaminiate the recycling stream or the environment

ENSO plastic bottles are more environmentally-friendly.

ENSO’s additive is comprised of organic renewable sources. The additive doesn’t react to anything in the plastic, allowing it to retain its original strength, rather than breaking down when exposed to light or oxygen as oxo biodegradable plastic does.

ENSO bottles only begin to break down when placed in a dirt or some other microbial environment that allows microbes to colonize on the plastic, utilizing it as a food source  then beginning the process of breaking it down to its basic components of biogas and biomass. ENSO bottles can also safely be integrated into the recycling stream without any worries of contaminating it.

The difference between plastics can be both simple and profound. The type you use can either have a negative impact on the environment such as with oxo biodegradable plastic or a more neutral impact as with ENSO bottles.

Which one you choose makes a difference.

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The world is addicted to plastics! We couldn’t get away from them even if we wanted to and the reality is that plastics are a better solution that the alternatives. Look around from where you are reading this blog post and I can guarantee that you are surrounded by plastics. They are used in our phones, computers, furniture, cars, airplanes, misc items all around our daily lives and to top it off our clothing. The problem is so bad that our oceans are clogging up with bits of plastics killing off wildlife and getting into our food supply. We are literally beginning to drown in our own creation of plastics.

What about recycling? Well, that sounds really good on paper and makes since if we do it right but the reality is that over 84% of recycled plastics in the US are shipped to China and what they do with that material really is not recycling. Most of that recycled material is ending up being incinerated or is downcycled into products that have little chance of being recycled again. Why? Because our recycling infrastructure is mostly focused on what makes money and that right now is #1 (PET) and #2 (HDPE) type of plastic resins usually from beverage type bottles only. Most recyclable plastic falls outside of this category including the #1 (PET) bottles used for other packaging. To make matters worse, there are very few recycling programs that would be successful if not for legislation (bottle bills) and the government subsides. There are a few recyclers out there who really do make a difference and they are taking any and every type of plastic. They work hard at developing markets for the various types of plastics that the majority of recyclers won’t even look at. I commend these recyclers and wish there were more like them.

If we are going to make a difference with our planet and improve things for our children and grand-children we need to start looking at the big picture and incorporate the way we humans use things. Plastics are not necessarily bad but we should look at how we are making them, how we use them and how we dispose of them. Moving towards plastics which are renewable and that don’t infringe on food resources is the right thing to do for both the environment and our health. Being smarter about the way we use plastics will help us generate less garbage and how we handle that garbage is key to a cleaner future. We need to close the loop on plastics, lets recycle them into second and third life products which can be used again and again. All plastics and materials should be biodegradable so that when they reach the end of their useful life we have a way to create a useful products from the waste, such as methane gas which is a source of clean inexpensive energy.

We can all make a difference, it isn’t too late and is actually easy to do. We simply need to make better choices of the products we are purchasing. Simply look for, and purchase products from companies who are packaging their products in earth friendly biodegradable packaging, this will make the market and companies accountable for what they produce.

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There is a better design for a landfill which is called a “Bioreactor landfill.” Bioreactor landfills are designed to enhance biodegradation and create biogases (Also called landfill gases). LFG’s are being used to produce clean energy. Additionally, Bioreactor landfills have a longer life then the traditional dry tomb site and that means we need less land for garbage disposal.

If we are going to help our environment and leave our planet a healthier place for future generations we’re going to have to start thinking “Cradle to Cradle” with every product that is produced. We as consumers need to demand that manufacturers take stewardship for the products they make. They should be willing to take back packaging which by some accounts is more than 25 percent of all garbage. They should be willing to take back products for recycling or disposal once a product is no longer serviceable. Manufacturers who take stewardship for their products will be more inclined to design products which are better for our environment.

Fixing our environmental problems isn’t going to be easy, but I believe we humans have the capacity to do the right thing. Being environmentally friendly doesn’t mean we have to do without. Being environmentally friendly can mean we start thinking about the products we use and their impact on our planet.

Max

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Biodegradable Plastics, what does it mean and why is there so much confusion about something that sounds so simple to define?  The ASTM defines biodegradable plastics as “a degradable plastic in which the degradation results from the action of naturally-occurring micro-organisms such as bacteria, fungi, and algae”.   Sounds simple enough, so why all the confusion?   The confusion really comes from two aspects; 1) confusion between using the term degradable vs. biodegradable and 2) the loose use of the word biodegradable.

On the market today there is really three categories of plastics that biodegrade or degrade.  Those technologies are PLA (Polylatic Acid), Oxo-degradable and a new technology called EcoPure.  So now that we know what is out on the market how do we know which ones biodegrade vs. degrade?

PLA is a bioplastic made from starch; specifically it is being manufactured by starches from genetically modified corn.  This technology and supporting organizations such as BPI (Biodegradable Products Institute) claim that PLA biodegrades.  However, this claim is confusing because they are using the term “biodegradable” extremely loosely.  PLA is a “compostable plastic” in that it goes through “degradation” to break down not true “biodegradation”.  PLA does not break down or biodegrade in a landfill and will only begin to “degrade” after being exposed to heat (specifically 140° for over a five day period).  This kind of environment can only be found in a commercial composting facility.  We find that many of the articles and organizations who support PLA are greatly contributing to the confusion by not using correct standards based definitions of that technology.  What remains behind once PLA composts is CO2 and with professional composting facilities they are currently not capturing any gases so all gases are released into the atmosphere.

Now let’s move onto Oxo-degradable, as the name implies this technology causes the product to degrade.  This particular technology incorporates the use of an additive that begins to break the plastic chains when exposed to oxygen, heat and moisture.  Although this technology is fairly upfront with the type of degradation taking place the marketing materials suggest that once the pieces of plastic have broken down into small enough fragments that it creates the opportunity for microbes to finish those plastic fragments through biodegradation.  This aspect may be true but it extremely difficult to validate as the plastic fragments must have degraded to the micro level.  There are various reports as to what remains in the soil and air once an Oxo-degradable product has degraded.  This ranges from heavy or low metals, salts, CO2 and CH4; because many of these products will degrade in a landfill the gases of CO2 and CH4 will be captured and burned.

Moving on to the final technology we find Bio-tec Environmental EcoPure.  EcoPure is the technology behind the ENSO Bottle.  This technology also is applied in the form of an additive to existing polymers.  The technology behind EcoPure is that uses organic compounds to open the polymer chain and attractants to stimulate microbial colonization on the plastic.  Because the polymer chain in open the micro organisms can use the carbon chain as a source of food and energy.  Because this is happening at the atomic level what remains is CO2, CH4 and inert humus and because many of these products will degrade in a landfill the gases of CO2 and CH4 will be captured and burned.

So there we have it, an explanation of the differences between biodegradable and degradable.  Now that we know the difference between the two it still leaves the bigger question of which technology and method is better for the environment; biodegradable or degradable?  In order to answer that question would require another blog, however you should always keep in mind that the overall net impact to the environment.  When trying to answer that question keep in mind the following; using food to create plastics, pesticides that effect water, total water consumption, total fossil fuels used in processing, greenhouse gases emitted in processing and breaking down, the benefit of the product, does the biodegradation or degradation create any benefits such as clean energy?

By – Danny Clark

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