Photo by Shira Golding

Corn-based and other plant-derived plastics are all the rage these days, and are marketed as the ideal way to treat our plastic addiction. They’re made from a renewable resource, lessening our dependency on fossil fuels, and they are compostable, reducing the amount of plastic waste lingering in our landfills—what could be bad about that?

Not so fast. The issue is a bit more complex than it seems on the surface, and it turns out that these plastics still have big environmental impacts, just in different ways.

Cool, My Cutlery is Compostable!

But wait. It won’t break down in my home compost pile, or in a landfill, you say? Plant-based, or Polylactic Acid Polyesters (PLA), plastics require the near-perfect conditions found in a commercial composting facility: consistent high temperatures, ideal humidity, etc. in order to break down. Very few consumers have access to these facilities; even fewer are lucky enough to have curbside composting pickup. This means that the majority of the plastics will end up in the landfill, where contrary to popular belief, they do not biodegrade.

Recycling Rewind

Well, then I can recycle it right? Wrong. PLAs are not recyclable and contaminate the recycling stream. Removing non-recyclables from the batch is a costly and time-consuming affair, and many of these costs are passed on to the consumer. Even worse, some facilities don’t bother to sort contaminated bins, and the whole load ends up in the landfill.

Oil Free, Guilt Free

But, they’re made from a renewable resource. At least I can feel good about that! Or can you? One of the strongest sellingpoints for many consumers lies in the fact that PLAs are plant-based rather than petroleum-based, and that’s a valid argument. But, consider how the majority of crops sourced to manufacture the PLA polymer are grown. Crops like corn, beets, potatoes, and other starchy plants are grown on a huge scale, are doused with tons of petro-chemicals, i.e. fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides in order to maximize production.

Processing the plant material to make the polymer also requires energy from fossil fuels. So, unless crops grown organically, the processing plant is using clean energy from the sun or wind, the process to make PLA relies pretty heavily on petroleum.

Wanted: Farmland For Food Production

But that’s not all. Perhaps the biggest, and most controversial, impact of growing plastics is the fact that it is taking up perfectly good farmland to grow food that is not being used…for food. Scientists predict that we haven’t seen anything yet when it comes to the global food shortage, so growing plants that could be used to feed people but using them to make packaging and fuel (that’s another argument altogether) doesn’t seem like a sustainable solution.

As we continue to lose arable lands to commercial development to support the burgeoning population, cut down the rainforest to grow corn and graze cattle, it makes less and less sense to use farmland to grow plastic. Some might argue that much of our cropland is used to cultivate livestock feed to grow animals that only a small percentage of the population eats, so it’s already an inefficient system, and this is a valid point. But, it doesn’t mean that we should add insult to injury and use food as a source for plastic, it only means that the whole system needs an overhaul.

Biodegradable Plastics to the Rescue!

ENSO Bottles

So what’s an eco-conscious consumer to do? It’s not very practical (or even possible at this point) to ditch plastic altogether, so what’s the alternative?

Enter biodegradable plastics. Products made with ENSO’s leading edge technology render any conventional plastic biodegradable in a landfill setting, where most plastic ends up.

ENSO’s biodegradable bottles and other products offer a sustainable solution to the growing plastic waste problem. They disappear under natural conditions, thanks to the work of microbes that quickly and completely break them down, leaving behind only organic compounds and new soil. They’re also recyclable. To move away from dependency on petroleum to source plastic, ENSO is always working with an eye toward the future, to consider other sources like algae, and improve existing technology.

At the end of the day, the take home lesson is this: Know what you are buying, and understand the impacts of the full process of how it was made, and what happens after it’s disposed of, because green products aren’t always what they’re cracked up to be.

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The book titled JUNK SCIENCE: How Politicians, Corporations, and Other Hucksters Betray Us by Dr. Dan Agin was very interesting book. Dr. Agin has a Ph.D. in biological psychology and thirty years of laboratory-research experience in neurobiology and is an associate professor emeritus of molecular genetics and cell biology at the University of Chicago.

I must admit when I picked up this book I was a bit put off by the premise of this book. Junk Science, Agin argues is not “bad science” or weak science, but is the socially destructive and often fatal twisting of science by special interests, usually associated with big money. He points out that those in power are usually aware of the importance of science to the retention of power.

In general, any political group or movement that twists science with bias in order to support a particular agenda is producing “junk science”, even if the twisting is subtle rather than blatant. The public has experienced the results of “junk science” by a few of those associated within the PLA industry who make false and misleading claims and have not backed up their own claims through sound scientific data. This only results in creating more confusion for the public and a lack of trust for the environmental benefit biodegradable plastic solutions can bring for our planet. Personally it has been an eye opener for me to see key individuals from the science community which are well respected in their field using their position to misinform the public with incorrect data about the microbiology of biodegradable plastics.

Dr. Agin covers a number of interesting topics within the book such as obesity, medicine, cloning, global warming, stem cell research and many other topics which are at the forefront of controversial discussions. He points out that “it’s usually easy for a researcher of high status, an authority figure, to fabricate and publish over an extended period of time, since the majority of researchers will automatically assume the work is legitimate.” This statement lead me to wonder how much misinformation is being presented to the public from big business organizations in order to promote an agenda? This exact question is what lead ENSO Bottles to openly present and offer to the public our biodegradation and recyclability testing of our biodegradable PET bottles. There are companies making claims about biodegradable, compostable and degradable plastics without providing any scientific data to support these claims. Others are using industry specific non-profit organizations to certify their products as compostable and also do not provide any such data to support the certification. As an environmental company we believe transparency is important and as such have taken the higher road with posting our data and ask the same for the entire biodegradable plastics industry, let’s all do away with “Junk Science” and actually make a positive difference for the planet.

A significant correlation that Dr. Agin addresses is “big money” and the science that supports “big money”. “Why are some forms of twisted science readily accepted by the public and other brushed aside?”, this is a question that Dr. Agin addresses in the book with a surprising and simple answer; we have a tendency to believe whatever we view as authority tells us. This results in organizations using power and positions of authority to push agendas through the use of false information which is at the very best “junk science” and at the worst downright criminal.

By Danny Clark
ENSO Bottles, LLC
Web: http://www.ensobottles.com

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The Ecology of microbes to one another and their surroundings is extraordinary with respect to the diversity of chemical and physical conditions that can be tolerated. Microbes thrive in extreme environments with regards to temperatures, high concentrations of salts and sugars, relative acidity, and with or without the presence of oxygen.

I’ve had a few conversation and read comments by scientists, individuals and organizations who promote the PLA industry claiming that biodegradation does not happen in landfill environments. One person I met while attending NPE2009 in Chicago was so bold as to make the statement that biodegradation does not happen anaerobically. I thought this was very interesting as the process for producing lactic acid (which is a required process for PLA – Polylactic Acid) is through the fermentation of corn starch. Fermentation is the biological process in which sugars and starches are converted into cellular energy in anaerobic conditions (a.k.a. anaerobic biodegradation). In fact, found on the BPI (Biodegradable Products Institute) website is an explanation on biodegradation. BPI quotes the following”.

“Myth: Biodegradable products are the preferred environmental solutions because waste simply biodegrades in the landfill.

Reality: Nothing biodegrades in a landfill because nothing is supposed to.”

Although some would like to believe we can simply will away microbes from digesting garbage in a landfill we have been unsuccessful up until this point. I think anyone who has attended a high school biology class would know that biodegradation through microbial activity happens basically everywhere on the planet and in either aerobic and anaerobic environments. The environmental laws we have passed requiring landfills to capture and burn the methane generated through the process of microbes breaking down organic materials in anaerobic conditions found in landfill environments is a testament that biodegradation does in fact happen in landfills.

Although it may have seemed like magic to our ancestors and still today to a rare few, the activities from microbes on our planet is so vital to our existence. As we continue to develop and evolve as a species it is hopeful that we can recognize and develop symbiotic relationships with these tiny organisms. One such relationship would be the creation of methane gases by allowing microbes to naturally digest our organic waste which is then used as a source for clean inexpensive energy. Our garbage becomes a source of microbial food which becomes a source for clean energy which reduces our reliance on fossil fuels, which helps to improve the environment.

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By Danny Clark

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